2.82.77389 
B8/c 

— Bishop  of  Belleville,  ILL.,  vs.     — 
St.  Patrick's  Parish,  E.St. Louis. (1900) 


tow*  mma  sw«t 


J 


A  CELEBRATED  CASE. 


>— »-o»«— *- 


THE    BISHOP 


OF  BELLEVILLE,  ILL., 


-vs. 


St.  Patrick's  Parish, 


EAST  ST.   LOUIS,  ILLINOIS. 


ITS   HISTORY    AND    MORAL   LESSONS 


BY   OWEN    ROE. 


ANDREW   F.   BROWNE,    MANAGER. 

Laclede  &  Vandeventer  Aves., 

ST.  LOUIS.  MO. 


PRICE  50  CENTS. 


. 


INDEX  TO  PORTRAITS. 


•o-«- 


Frontispiece — St.  Patrick's  Church,  Parochial  Residence  and  Convent  School.  page 

Miecislas  Halka  de  Ledochowski..      "i 

(Count  of  Ledochowski  and  Cardinal-Prefect  of  the  Propaganda.) 

Most  Rev.  Sebastian  Martinelli,  Apostolic  Delegate     6 

Very  Rev.  Father  CHalloran                      .....................                                                    8 

Mrs.  Flynn 9 

Mrs   Eugene  O'Halloran                                                                                                10 

Thomas  Erwin                                                            ....  11 

Group — The  Guard  of  Honor 12 

P.  B.  Cusack 13 

Miss  Margaret  Wallace  14 

Robert  Cunningham                      15 

Prof.  Thomas  J.  McDonough 16 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Tom  Hanifan,  following  page                       .....                                       16 

<Jronp     Misses   Birdie   Healey,   Mary   X.   Hurley  and    Mary  K.  < >'  Hanlon ;     Messrs.  Deniali 

Hanifan  and  M.  Hurley  17 

Dr.  John  Stack                             .                                                                              18 

Walter  J.  Broderiok                                                                                                                      li» 

Group — Mr.  and  Mrs.  Geo.  Cashel  and  Mrs.  Ellen  Healey                                         20 

Group — Mi-->-   Prances  and  Agnes   Kerrigan   and   Margaret    Flynn:   Messrs.   Frank  Eceles, 

Dan  Connelly   and  M.  .1.  Hanifan                                                                             .  12 1 

J.  J.  Kane                                                                                                                                   22 

Mr.  and  Mrs.   Dennis  1'.  Sullivan,  following  page  22 

Frank  .1.  Healey  2-\ 

Patrick  Kerrigan  24 

V.  F.  (('Sullivan 25 

.John  Raleigh  ...  26 

Daniel  O'Brien  127 

Dennis  McCarthy                                                                                                                                     28 

Walter  J.  Coonan  29 

P.  J.  Gainer 30 

P.  P.  Sullivan 31 

Edward  O'Brien..                                                                                          34 

P.  J.  Keely 35 

James  Francis  Maher  ..           38 

John  Heffron                                                                                                                                           39 

Michael  F.  O'Brien              .                    44 


We  beg  leave  to  call  the  attention  of  our  friends  to  the  announcement  of  the  Wabash  Railroad 
on  the  back  cover,  and  assure  them  that  our  experience  with  the  management  of  that  road  justi- 
fies us  in  saying  that  those  who  desire  first-class  accommodations  will  not  be  disappointed  should 
they  travel  along  that  route. 


The  cut  on  the  opposite  page  represents  St.  Patrick's  church,  school 
and  parochial  residence,  extending  over  an  entire  block  from  Sixth  to  Seventh 
streets  on  Illinois  avenue,  one  of  the  most  prominent  thoroughfares  in  East 
St.  Louis.  The  value  of  the  property  and  beauty  of  the  surroundings  our 
readers  can  imagine.  All  this  was  paid  for  by  the  Irish-American  families  of 
the  parish  with  the  exception  of  two  or  three  prominent  French  families.  And 
yet  Bishop  Janssen,  in  his  desire  to  add  this  magnificent  property  to  that 
already  controlled  by  his  Priester-Verein,  was  blind  and  deaf  to  every  appeal 
of  the  parishioners  for  an  Irish-American  pastor,  until  Rome,  through  the  good 
advice  of  that  wise,  discreet  and  holy  man,  of  unquestioned  diplomatic 
ability,  the  Apostolic  Delegate,  Most  Rev.  Bishop  Martinelli,  said  to  the 
good  (?)  Bishop  stop,  you  have  gone  too  far,  remove  the  ban  of  excom- 
munication, they  do  not  deserve  it,  give  them  a  priest  of  their  own  nation- 
ality. Thus  has  the  most  noted  controversy  in  the  history  of  the  Catholic 
Church  in  America  ended  in  a  glorious  triumph  for  the  people.  And  thus 
our  Apostolic  Delegate  has  earned  the  love,  blessings,  and  everlasting  grati- 
tude of  the  Irish-American  people,  not  only  of  East  St.  Louis,  but  of  every  city 
and  town  in  the  United  States  where  an  Irish  organization  exists,  as  well  as 
that  of  the  people  in  Ireland,  who  have  watched  this  case  with  keen  interest, 
and  will  honor  him  for  his  just  decision. 


PREFACE. 


"Speak  of  me  as  I  am;  nothing  extenuate, 
Nor  set  down  aught  in  malice." 

[Othello,  v-2.J 

jURING  the  process  of  this  Celebrated  Case  before  the  Apostolic  Delegation, 
and  before  the  court  of  public  opinion,  we  have  advised  and  others  of 
high  station  in  the  Church  have  advised  the  publication  of  this  work,  giving 
some  sort  of  logical  order  to  the  vast  mass  of  desultory  matter  which  appeared 
in  the  public  press  in  reference  thereto,  and  taking  occasion  to  set  forth  the 
teaching  and  spirit  of  the  Church  upon  the  principles  involved  in  the  controversy. 

We  wish  that  the  work  were  entrusted  to  more  skillful  hands,  but  while 
many  had  expressed  the  desire  to  see  it  done,  no  one  seemed  inclined  to 
assume  the  task. 

To  take  advantage  of  the  wide-spread  interest  elicited  in  this  case,  the 
work  ought  to  have  been  undertaken  long  ere  this.  As  it  is,  we  do  not  claim 
the  credit  of  supplying  this  want.  Indeed,  had  we  not  been  repeatedly  invited 
to  perform  the  task  we  would  humbly  have  escaped  it.  The  arguments  urged 
on  us,  and  which  finally  persuaded  us  to  comply  with  the  earnest  request, 
were  that  as  we  were  an  active  participant  in  the  great  contest  and  familiar 
with  its  subject  matter,  we  would  thus  be  more  fitted  for  the  work  than  others 
who  would  probably  give  the  public  a  mere  hoc  post  hoc  narration  of  the  case. 

The  present  work  opens  up  ground  new  to  many.  Because  the  Church 
lays  such  stress  upon  the  necessity  and  maintenance  of  authority,  without 
which  there  could  be  no  government,  no  unity,  no  order,  some  light  minds 
charge  her  with  absolutism  or  autocracy.  We  have  endeavored  to  show  that 
there  is  no  government  in  the  world  so  democratic  in  the  true  sense  than  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church.     She   knows  no  acceptance  of   persons,  and  therefore 


ii  Prefaa . 

is  she  guided  in  her  legislation  by  the  principles  of  justice  and  equity.  No 
government  has,  nor  can  have,  a  higher  concept  of  thai  supreme  law,  which 
is  the  welfare  of  the  people,  than  Holy  Mother  Church.  The  people  are  the 
little  ones  entrusted  to  her  by  Jesus  Christ.  She  cherishes  them  in  her  divine 
maternal  instincts  as  she  does  the  apple  of  her  eye.  Who  becomes  a  stumbling 
block  to  the  people  is  the  enemy  of  the  Church.  Knowing  this  we.  never 
wavered  in  our  belief,  during  the  prolonged  contest,  that  victory  would  crown 
the  people's  efforts  to  secure  those  time-honored  canonical  privileges  which  the 
Church  has  accorded  her  children  from  the  earliest  times. 

The  object  lesson  which  this  case  affords  is  a  most  salutary  one  to  clergy 
and  people.  Many  of  our  bishops  and  pastors  were  little  monarch S  who  se.t  at 
naught  the  judgment  and  will  of  the  people.  In  this  they  are  certainly  not  in 
harmonv  with  the  mind  of  the  Church,  but  in  direct  opposition  10  her  spirit 
and  will.  The  people  will  become  more  Roman  as  they  are  taught  to  turn  to 
the  central  authority  of  the  Church  in  their  complaints  against  unjust  ecclesias- 
tical rulers.  And  in  becoming  more  Roman  they  become  more  Catholic.  "If 
you  be  Christians  be  you  also  Romans,"  declared  St.  Patrick  to  his  disciples, 
as  recorded  in  the  "Book  of  Armagh." 

If  in  our  dealing  with  certain  social  and  religious  evils  we  found  it  necessary 

to  probe  and   cauterize  here  and  there,  we  assure  our  patients  that  a  scientific 

treatment  of  the  case  demanded  it,  and  we  assure  them  further  that  we  deeply 

cherish    their   best    interests.      After   the    spirit  of    St.    Paul    we   say    to  them : 

"I  write   not   these    things    to  confound,  but   to    admonish   you, as  my    dearest 

children." 

0    R. 


MIECISLAS  HALKA   DE  LEDOCHOWSKI. 
Count  of  Ledochowski  and  Cardinal-Prefect  of  the  Propaganda. 

This  illustrious  dignitary  of  the  Church  is  the  eldest  son  of  Count 
Joseph  of  Ledochowski.  He  was  born  October  29,  1822,  at  the  domain 
of  Ledochow  in  Galicia. 

On  leaving  the  Ecclesiastica  Academia  he  was  sent  to  Madrid  as 
secretary  to  tne  Nunceo  in  Spain,  and  subsequently  discharged  the  import- 
ant functions  of  Nunceo  Apostolic  in  Brazil,  Portugal,  Chili  and  Belgium — 
in  all  these  countries  winning  the  esteem  of  the  diplomatic  corps.  He 
was  consecrated  Bishop  in  1861,  was  promoted  to  the  Archiepiscopal  see 
of  Gnesen  and  Posen  in  1865. 

The  Archbishop  joined  the  other  Archbishops  and  Bishops  in  a  protest 
against  the  Prussian  May  Laws  of  1873,  and  on  his  refusal  to  appear 
before  a  criminal  court,  was  fined  repeatedly,  till  all  his  property  was 
seized.  He  was  then  imprisoned  at  Ostrowo.  At  the  same  time  1,100 
priests  v/ere  undergoing  prison  life  in  the  German  empire. 

After  his  release  from  prison  he  was  raised  to  the  Cardinalite,  and  finally 
advanced  to  his  present  exalted  position  as  Prefect  of  the  Propaganda. 
This  distinguished  confessor  of  the  faith  has  proven  himself  a  martyr  in 
the  cause  of  right  and  justice.  When  our  cause  was  finally  laid  before  the 
Propaganda  by  Archbishop  Martinelli,  the  Cardinal-Prefect  dealt  with  it  in 
a  summary  manner  by  peremptorily  ordering  Bishop  Janssen,  of  Belleville, 
to  withdraw  his  injudicious  pronouncement  of  excommunication  and  accede 
to  the  wishes  of  the  people. 

Long  live  Cardinal  Ledochowski! 


^romtPitsttitfH 


MIECISLAS  HALKA  DE  LEDOCHOWSKI, 
Count  of  Ledochowski  and  Cardinal-Prefect  of  the  Propaganda. 


MOST   REV    SEBASTIAN   MARTINELLI,  APOSTOLIC   DELEGATE. 

When  St.  Patrick's  congregation   decided  to  openly  protest  against  the  unjust  invasion 

of  their  rights  by  Bishop  Janssen,  they  resolved  to  do  so  in  accordance  with  the 

laws  of  the  Church,  and  therefore  did  they  send  a  committee  to  the  Apostolic 

Delegate,  who  received  their  appeal  most  graciously.     From  that  moment 

we  felt  that  Cahensleyism  was  doomed  in  East  St.  Louis.     May  His 

Grace  continue  to  abide  with  us.  to  enrich  us  by  his  rare  learning 

and    prudence    and    to    check    every    advance    towards 

unlawful   episcopal   monarchy. 


A  CELEBRATED  CASE. 


The  Bishop  of  Belleville,  III. 


vs. 


St.  Patrick's  Parish, 


EAST   ST.   LOUIS,  ILL. 


The  East  St.  Louis  Ecclesiastical  Case,  now  happily  ended,  deserves  a  place 
in  the  history  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  America.  Its  prolonged  discussion  elicited 
the  keenest  interest  of  the  clergy  as  well  as  of  the  laity  of  the  country.  The 
ignorant  and  thoughtless  saw  in  it  only  a  petty  quarrel  or  an  unwarranted  rebellion 
on  the  part  of  a  Catholic  congregation  against  episcopal  authority,  whilst  discerning 
minds,  viewing  the  matter  below  the  surface,  watched  its  outcome  with  marked 
attention.  To  them  it  was  a  question  of  great  moment — involving  fundamental 
principles  of  Church  polity. 

To  give  a  true  and  intelligent  history  of  the  unhappy  conflict  we  must  go  back 
and  trace  the  causes  that  produced  it. 

A  certain  German  element,  by  no  means  representative  of  that  great  people, 
have  been  cultivating  for  years  a  most  offensive  form  of  nationalism  within  the 
Church  in  this  country.  Its  literary  organs  boldly  reveal  its  ulterior  design, 
namely,  to  make  everything  as  nearly  as  possible  the  same  as  in  Germany, 
"  Gerade  wie  bei  uns  in  Deutschland,"  as  they  say. 

In  1884  an  ultra  German  priest  of  this  school,  and  of  the  diocese  of  St.  Louis, 
published  two  articles  in  the  Pastoral- Blatt  under  the  title,  "The  Future  of  Foreign- 
born  Catholics ;   and  Fears  and  Hopes  for  the  Catholic  Church  and  Schools  in  the 


8  Tht    Bishop  "/'  Belleville,   Illinois,   vs. 

United  States."  Id  these  articles  the  writer  impugns  the  wisdom  and  fair-minded- 
ness of  the  American  hierarchy  in  reference  to  the  treatment  of  German  Catholics 
in  the  United  States. 

The  Pastor,  a  monthly  journal  for  priests,  referring  to  these  injudicious  letters, 
used  the  following  prophetic  language:  "If  it  provoke  retorts,  and  bitter  ones, 
against  German  priests  being  put  in  charge  of  Irish-American  congregations,  the 
Pastoral-Blati  will  be  itself  to  blame." 

The  German-Catholic  Central  Verein  in  188b'  took  up  this  complaint,  until 
finally  it  was  brought  to  the  notice  of  the  Propaganda.  "I  candidly  believe," 
wrote  a  broad-minded  German  priest,  "that  we  German  Catholics  ought  to  accept 
thankfully  from  the  hands  of  Providence  the  American  surroundings  in  which  we 
are  placed,  to  conform  ourselves  to  them  as  far  as  prudence  and  conscience  may 
dictate,  and  not  to  expect  it  to  be  the  mission  of  the  Catholic  Church  to  obstruct 
forcibly  with  her  authority  the  natural  course  of  events  in  favor  of  any  particular 
nationality  or  language,  though  this  may  happen  to  be  our  own." 

This  sound  advice  and  gentle  rebuke  incurred  the  wrath  of  the  Cahcnsleyites. 
The  so-called  Catholic  papers  which  echoed  their  sentiments  indulged  in  the  vilest 
abuse  against  the  American  bishops  and  archbishops.  Considering  it  impolitic  to 
set  themselves  on  record  as  being  anti-American,  they  substitute  the  word  Irish. 
Here  is  an  evidence  of  their  dishonesty  and  un-Catholie  spirit.  In  their  petition 
presented  to  the  Propaganda  in  1887  we  find  the  following  unmeaning  clauses. 

"We  ask  the  Sacred  Congregation  of  the  Propaganda  to  define  *  *  *  that 
the  German  parishes  be  entirely  independent  of  the  Irish,  that  the  rectors  of  Irish 
parishes  can  exercise  no  parochial  rights  in  relation  to  Germans  who  are  assigned, 
or  by  right  ought  to  be  assigned  to  some  German  church,  whether  they  be  new- 
comers from  Germany,  or  born  in  America  of  German  parents,  etc." 

The  framers  of  this  petition  knew  quite  well  that  though  an  English-speaking 
parish  may  be  composed  in  the  main  of  Irish  or  Irish-Americans,  it  could  not  with 
any  propriety  be  called  an  Irish  parish.  Did  the  Irish  clergy  of  America  ever 
petition  the  Propaganda,  as  did  the  Germans  in  1887,  that  "the  bishops  and 
priest-  be  instructed,  on  the  one  part,  in  no  manner  to  endeavor  to  suppress  and 
root  out  the  language,  the  manners,  the  customs,  the  ways  and  manner  of  worship 
of  the  (Irish)?"  Most  certainly  No.  There  are  no  Irish  parishes  as  such  in 
America  nor  outside  of  Donegal  or  the  Highlands  of  Scotland. 


VERY  REV.   FATHER  O'HALLORAN 

Was  an    ideal    man   and    priest.       Underneath   that   plainness  of    manner  and 
diction,  which  characterized  him,  there  were  a  tenderness  of  feeling  and 
a  purity  of  mind  which  were  most  admirable.      He  was  as  intense  in 
his  love  for  America  as  he  was  for  his  motherland.     He  was 
eminently  practical  and  a  hater  of  all   nonsense  and  hum- 
buggery,  exceedingly  hospitable  and  appreciative  of 
genial    humor.       Dear    Father    O'Halloran    was    a 
typical   Irish   priest  who  was  close  to  the 
hearts  of   his  people. 


!- 


_:_ 


MRS    FLYNN. 

Mrs.   Flynn  will   long  be   remembered   in   East  St.  Louis  as  an   uncompromising 

advocate  of  the  right  of  the  Irish   people  to  be  ministered  to  by  a  priest 

after   their  own    heart.     Even  at   the  point    of    death    Mrs.   Flynn 

insisted   upon  the  attendance  of  an    Irish   priest  to   unfold 

her  heart  to  a  Sogarth  Aroon,  and  ask  him,  mayhap, 

whether  her  soul  would   pass  through   Ireland 

on    its    journey    to    eternity. 


St.  Patrick's  Parish,   East   St.   Lewis,  Illinois.  9 

It  was  therefore  a  low  subterfuge  to  speak  of  Irish  in  contradistinction  to 
German  parishes. 

Judging  from  the  tone  of  certain  accredited  organs  of  this  school,  it  would 
appear  to  be  included  in  their  program  to  speak  contemptuously  of  the  Irish  people. 

In  no  country  where  there  is  any  moral  censorship  of  the  press  exercised  could 
one  find  such  indecent  publications  as  emanate  from  this  disgraceful  school  of 
German  nationalism.  For  impudence  and  audacity,  grossness  and  vulgarity  they 
are  unparalleled.* 

The  American  Catholic  Quarterly  Review,  as  early  as  1883,  alluding  to  the 
appearance  of  this  offensive  nationalism,  thus  speaks:  "To  foster  these  national 
feelings  unduly  is  a  great  mistake.  They  breed  animosity;  and,  as  the  rising 
generation  will  be  American  in  feelings,  they  must  look  upon  this  as  their  country  ; 
and,  if  their  religion  is  a  matter  of  nationality,  it  will  expire  with  it. 
This  is  a  canker  eating  away  the  life  of  the  Church  in  the  United  States. 

"Those  who  labor  mainly  among  Catholics  of  foreign  birth,  as  well  as  such 
Catholics  themselves,  rarely  form  a  conception  of  the  extent  to  which  we  Catholics 
as  a  body  are  regarded  by  the  people  of  this  country  only  as  a  sort  of  foreign  camp 
in  their  midst.  *  *  *  A  Protestant  will  point  to  the  map  and  say :  '  Where 
are  your  American  Catholics?  The  whole  country  is  laid  off  in  dioceses  as  though 
you  owned  it,  but  how  is  it  that  your  Popes  have  never  yet  found  an  American 
Catholic  fit  to  occupy  a  see  Avest  of  the  Mississippi  and  Lake  St.  Clair?  '  There  are 
thousands  of  miles  where  no  American-born  bishop  has  ever  been  seen."   (p.  525.) 

These  remarks  would  appear,  at  first  sight,  to  refer  to  Irish-born  bishops  as 
well  as  to  Germans,  but  on  reflection  we  can  perceive  that  such  a  conclusion  is  not 
contained  in  the  premises.  What  we  object  to  is  the  character  of  foreignism  in 
the  Church  of  this  country,  the  canker  of  nationalism,  fostered  and  promoted  by 
this  blind  German  element  to  which  we  have  been  alluding,  and  which  provoked 
these  above  remarks. f 

The  brilliant  editor  of  the  St.  Louis  Mirror,  commenting  upon  the  action  of 
the  Bishop  of  Belleville,  has  evidently  grasped  this  difficulty  with  remarkable  force 

*  The  Hausfreund,  the  Weisenfreund,  the  Herold  des  Glaubens,  the  Revieio. 

tl  consider  every  priest  an  American  who  has  been  in  the  country  from  his  youth,  and  who 
has  been  thoroughly  identified  with  the  spirit  of  the  country.  With  this  definition  of  an  American, 
I  think  any  system  that  forces  men  of  other  nationalities  upon  the  country  does  a  great  injury  to 
religion.  *  *  *  Let  there  be  no  question  of  nationality  raised;  but  if  there  is,  let  the  bishop 
be  an  American. — ('The  Bishop  and  the  Priest,"  p.  63.) 


10  The  Bishop  of  Belleville,  Illinois,  vs. 

and  clearness.  "The  country  at  large,  he  writes,  has  an  interest  deeper,  perhaps, 
than  it  suspects,  in  tins  incident.  The  issue  is  whether  the  so-called  Cahensleyites 
shall  establish  an  imperium  in  imperio  in  this  country.  The  Cahensley  idea  is 
that  the  German  dioceses  shall  insist  upon  the  autonomy  of  those  dioceses  as 
Germanic  institutions.  The  German  bishops  insist  that  German  dioceses  shall 
have  German  priests  and  German  Catholic  schools,  and  a  more  or  less  Teutonic 
system  of  discipline  for  priests  and  people  consistent  with  the  ordinary  Church 
discipline.  If  Bishop  Janssen  of  Belleville  can  install  a  German  priest  over 
Irish  Catholic  parishes  in  his  diocese,  he  will  be  enabled  to  show  a  solidly 
German  diocese  to  the  authorities  at  Rome,  and  if  all  the  German  bishops  in 
the  country  can  do  the  same,  they  can  unite  in  a  powerful  presentation  to  the 
Vatican  that  the  maintenance  of  Catholic  principles  in  this  country  depends 
upon  ;i  definite  recognition  and  encouragement  of  German  schools.  They  would 
lie  able  to  insist  upon  the  importation  of  German  priests  and  teachers,  upon  the 
maintenance  of  German  Catholic  publication  societies,  and  upon  the  forms  and 
method- of  instruction  prevalent  in  Germany.  In  practical  effect  the  granting  of 
this  demand  would  be  to  make  the  dioceses  in  question  branches  of  sees  in 
Germany.  This,  to  Americans  generally,  is  repulsive.  It  is  a  condition  that 
would  sap  the  strength  and  undermine  the  authority  of  the  United  States  hierarchy. 
It  would  weaken  the  Church  by  dividing  it.  It  would  antagonize  American 
sentiment  by  perpetuating  foreign  language,  foreign  customs  and  foreign  racial 
solidarity  against  other  races  in  America  under  cover  of  the  Church.  *  *  With 
this  contention,  as  represented  by  the  parishioners  of  St.  Patrick's  in  East  St.  Louis, 
the  sympathy  of  the  country  at  large  is  enlisted.  The  general  idea  involved  in  it 
is  the  same  as  that  which  led  the  people  in  various  cities  of  the  Union  to  vote  down 
the  teaching  of  the  German  language  in  the  public  schools.  That  it  would  be  well 
to  have  German-speaking  priests  in  parishes  made  up  of  newly-arrived  German 
Catholics  is,  on  the  whole,  reasonable.  What  is  objectionable  is  the  evident 
determination  to  keep  the  Germans  of  the  Church  in  this  country  Germans  in 
perpetuity,  maintaining  parishes,  not  so  much  as  parishes  of  the  Church,  but  as 
German  colonies  within  the  states  and  cities.  It  is  a  positive  fact  that 

Cahensleyites  in  Germany  were  responsible  for  the  misrepresentation  of  Archbishop 
Ireland  at  Rome.  It  is  known  that  Cahensleyites  made  a  fight  against  American 
professors  in  the  chairs  of  the  Catholic  University  at  Washington.     In  everything 


-• 


MRS.   EUGENE  O'HALLORAN.       . 

Mrs.  O'Halloran  was  one  of  the  leaders  among  the  women  of  St.  Patrick's  Parish 

to   prevent  Father  Cluse  from   entering  the  church.     She  is  respected 

and    loved   by  her    people,    and    well    deserves  a  prominent 

position    in    the    history   of   this   celebrated    case. 


MR    THOMAS  ERWIN. 

Here  is  the  noblest  Roman  of  them  all;  one  of  the  most  conscientious,  upright  and 

honorable  business  men  of  East  St.  Louis,  who  entrusted  the  care  of  his 

business  to  others  and  stood  guard  with  the  boys  from  the  beginning 

of  the  controversy  until  the  final  glorious  ending  of  the  struggle. 


St.   Patrick's  Parish,   East   St.   Louis,  Illinois.  11 

the  German  Catholic  elements  are  fighting  for  separatism  in  this  country,  for 
racial  exclusiveness,  for  the  furtherance  in  their  churches  and  schools  of  an 
obscurance  of  American  ideas  and  principles." 

As  we  have  already  intimated  Milwaukee  and  St.  Louis  have  long  been  the 
two  great  camps  of  this  enemy  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  America.  Through  the 
indefatigable  labors  of  its  chief  conspirators  in  the  latter  city,  a  diocese,  in  the 
main  Irish-American,  has  now  become  almost  thoroughly  Germanized.  The  late 
venerable  Archbishop  Kenrick  saw  no  danger  in  Germanism.  He  in  fact  nurtured 
it  in  his  manner  of  legislation.  He  gave  carte-blanche  to  a  certain  ecclesiastical 
official  in  the  German  affairs  of  his  diocese.  For  upwards  of  forty  years  that 
apostle  of  German  nationalism  has  labored  in  and  out  of  season  to  establish  a 
veritable  imperium  in  imperio.  The  conditions  were  most  anomalous.  The  two 
clerical  bodies,  German  and  American,  seemed  to  move  in  parallel  lines,  literally 
strangers  to  each  other,  though  laboring  in  the  same  vineyard  and  under  the  same 
divine  standard.  That  unity  of  heart  and  soul,  "  uniim  cor  et  una  anima,"  which 
characterized  the  early  Christians,  was  conspicuously  wanting,  in  this  portion  of 
the  Kingdom.* 

The  German  language,  German  manners  and  customs,  German  wa}Ts  and 
manner  of  worship  were  zealously  fostered  and  advanced  in  that  fair  city,  once 
styled  "  The  Rome  of  America."  Even  sweet  charity,  which  "is  not  ambitious" 
and  "seeketh  not  her  own,"  is  to  flow  in  German  channels,  hence  the  establish- 
ment of  German  orphan  asylums  and  German  hospitals. 

While,  the  assignment  of  an  American  priest  to  a  German-American  district 
was  not  even  to  be  thought  of,  these  Cahensleyites  endeavored  to  capture  English 
speaking  parishes  whenever  a  vacancy  occurred. t     And  they  succeeded   to    the 

*In  issuing  invitations  to  the  clergy  to  participate  in  the  recent  Golden  Jubilee  Celebration 
of  St.  Peter  and  Paul's  Church,  St.  Louis,  the  names  of  English  speaking  priests  were  omitted. 
The  German  assistants  at  the  English  churches  were  not  forgotten  however. 

f  In  a  certain  town  in  Missouri,  where  the  Catholics  were  English,  French  and  Irish,  a 
German  priest  of  recent  importation  was  appointed  as  their  pastor  by  the  Vicar-General  who  did 
not  have  the  good  manners  to  notify  the  attending  English-speaking  missionary  of  his  action. 

Other  instances  may  be  given  where  German  priests  preside  over  Irish  and  American 
districts  in  the  diocese  of  St.  Louis.  We  knew  one  German  priest  in  a  rather  cultured  American 
town  on  the  Missouri  River  who  honestly  acknowledged  his  dislike  of  the  English  tongue. 

If  a  truth-seeking  American  were  to  visit  such  a  church,  and  hear  nothing  but  the  German 
.anguage  spoken  therein,  he  would  be  inclined  to  say:  The  Roman  Catholic  Church  is  evidently 
a  foreign  institution.  She  does  not  adapt  herseif  to  the  American  people,  and  seems  perfectly 
indifferent  to  our  acceptance  of  her  doctrines. 


12  The  Bishop  of  Belleville,  Illinois,  m. 

extent — aye  to  the  appalling  extenl  thai  to-day,  in  the  diocese  of  St.  Louis,  the 
Americans  constitute  only  ■"><>  per  cent  of  the  entire  diocesan  clergy. 

And  this  is  how  such  :i  condition  of  things  came  about.  While  the  late 
saintly  Archbishop  was  delving  into  the  depths  of  sacred  cosmogony,  and  most 
unsuspecting  <>f  any  sinister  movements  on  the  part  of  his  trusted  officials, 
Germany  was  being  searched,  as  with  lamps,  for  raw  recruits,  to  serve  in  the 
ministry  in  these  inviting  fields.  The  extreme  generosity  with  which  scholarships 
were  offered  in  the  seminary  at  Innsbruck  to  any  German  youth,  who  would 
affiliate  himself  to  this  western  diocese,  attracted  the  attention  of  American 
-indents  at  that  institution.  Rosy  dreams  of  this  new  ecclesiastical  El  Dorado 
began  to  fill  the  brains  of  German  youths  as  they  lay  beside  that  Alpine  river. 

The  seminary  at  Cape  Girardeau,  under  the  pious  sons  of  St.  Vincent  de  Paul, 
had  long  been  recognized  as  a  diocesan  institution.  Through  secret  influence,  the 
diocesan  patronage  was  practically  withdrawn  and  given  to  Milwaukee,  a  most 
pronounced  Germanic  institution.  Even  in  details  and  minor  matters,  no  oppor- 
tunity was  neglected  to  turn  everything  into  German  channels. 

We  must  remember  that  Germanism  was  intended  to  he  a  national,  if  not  an 
international  movement.  The  victories  won  in  Milwaukee  and  St.  Louis  encour- 
aged its  votaries  all  along  the  line.  They  soon  began  to  manifest  a  feeling  of 
unrest  under  the  government  of  American  bishops.  As  well  expect  the  primitive 
Jews  to  coalesce  with  the  Gentiles  as  to  get  these  extremists  to  blend  their  forces 
with  the  Church  in  America.  They  are  essentially  separatists.  Even  in  localities 
where  they  are  in  the  vast  minority,  they  secede  from  the  English-speaking  diocese 
or  parish,  and  maintain  their  distinct  organizations.* 

When  Bishop  Ryan  of  Alton  succeeded  Bishop  Baltes,  who  ruled  over  Southern 
Illinois,  Rev.  John  Janssen,  now  Bishop  of  Belleville,  and  others  encouraged  a 
division  of  the  diocese.  Meeting  with  the  approval  of  this  element,  Belleville  was 
created  into  a  distinct  see. 


*In  instances  where  the  separated  Germans  are  unable  to  support  their  pastor,  the  German 
Vicar-General  engages  to  maintain  him  with  the  view  of  establishing  the  nucleus  of  a  German 
parish,  which  may  soon  become  self  supporting.     Verstehen  sie  nieht:' 

"Even  in  several  dioceses  in  which  the  German  Catholics  form  a  comparatively  small 
minority  of  the  members  of  the  Church,  there  are  bishops  of  German  descent.  Where,  in  fact, 
is  there  any  diocese  in  which  the  German  Catholic  element  is  in  the  majority  which  has  not  a 
German  bishop?" — (Rev.  John  Gmeiner.) 


THE  GUARD  OF  HONOR. 

The  above  group,  whose  faces  are  so  well   known  to  the  people  of  East  St.  Louis  that  it  is 

unnecessary  to  name  them,  were  among  those  who  stood  guard  at  the  church  night 

and  day  from  the  beginning  of  this  wonderful  controversy  until  the  people's 

cause   finally  triumphed.      They  have  set  an    example   for  the 

young    Irish-American    element   worthy   of    emulation. 


MR.   P.   B    CUSACK. 

Mr.  P.  B.  Cusack,  Superintendent  of  the  Metropolitan   Life  Insurance  Co.  of  New 

York,  is  one  of  the  leading  business  men  of  East  St.  Louis,  and  as  the  above  cut 

would  indicate,  is  made  of  the  right  kind  of  stuff.     The  lessons  he  learned 

in  his  school  days  in   Ireland  by  associating  with  that  intrepid  leader  and 

sincere  patriot  Chas.  Stewart  Parnell,  whose  class-mate  he  was,  were  turned 

to  good  account  when  the  rights  of  the  people  of  St.  Patrick's  parish 

were  about  to  be  trampled  on  by  Bishop  Janssen.     His  courageous 

and  able  leadership  will  never  be  forgotten   by  a  grateful   people. 


St.   Patrick's  Parish,   East  St.   Louis,  Illinois.  13 

True  to  the  instincts  of  his  party,  Bishop  Janssen  proves  himself  an  apt 
disciple  of  this  school.  He  tried  to  out-Herod  Herod  until  he  overstepped  his 
bounds.  In  his  effort  to  Germanize  his  diocese,  his  zeal  overcame  his  prudence. 
Out  of  a  total  of  ninety-eight  diocesan  clergy  he  has  but  six  who  are  not  Germans. 
He  found  five  churches  in  his  diocese  dedicated  to  St.  Patrick,  composed  of  Irish 
Catholics  over  whom  he  has  placed  German  pastors.  That  his  appointment  of 
Father  Cluse  as  pastor  of  St.  Patrick's  Church,  East  St.  Louis,  was  not  an 
unpleasing  duty,  but  a  part  of  a  deep-laid  scheme  in  perfect  keeping  with  his 
legislation  from  the  beginning,  appears  on  the  surface.* 

It  is  against  this  unjust  and  imprudent  legislation  that  the  parishioners  pro- 
tested. "Our  people  are  willing  to  obey  the  laws  of  the  Church,  said  they  in 
writing  to  the  Apostolic  Delegate,  but  we  have  stood  German  encroachments  until 
we  feel  that  we  must  do  somethingtosave  our  selves  and  our  Irish  organizations  from 
annihilation."  j 

The  history  of  the  case  properly  begins  with  the  death  of  Father  O'Halloran,  the 
venerable  rector  of  St.  Patrick's,  which  occurred  on  Dec.  29th,  1898. 

Having  labored  for  nigh  forty  years  in  the  sacred  ministry  in  Southern  Illinois, 
few  were  more  observant  of  the  trend  of  affairs  than  Father  O'Halloran.  For 
thirteen  years  he  had  been  witnessing  the  manceuverings  of  this  Cahensleyite 
bishop,  and  no  one  could  be  more  outspoken  in  his  denunciation  of  this  odious 
policy.  He  anticipated  the  bishop's  intentions  in  the  appointment  of  Father 
Cluse  to  the  pastorate  of  St.  Patrick's,  and  the  thought  disturbed  his  dying  hours. 
He  knew  and  loved  his  people  and,  seeing  the  unfairness  and  incongruity  of  the 
appointment,  he  requested  his  people  to  earnestly  endeavor  to  avoid  such  an  evil. 


*A  special  telegram  to  The  Bepubhc  from  Washington,  says: 

"The  proceedings  by  which  Father  Cluse  was  appointed  rector  of  the  parish  of  St.  Patrick's, 
East  St.  Louis,  were  the  culmination  of  a  long  series  of  steps  in  the  same  direction.  The 
diocese  of  Belleville  over  which  Bishop  Janssen  presides,  is  the  head  center  of  the  organization 
of  Germans  known  as  the  priest-verein.  This  organization  was  started  in  the  palmy  days  of 
Cahensleyism,  which  has  died  out  in  almost  all  other  parts  of  the  country  except  this  diocese. 
Its  aim  and  object  is  to  marshal  the  German  forces  in  solid  phalanxes  to  the  exclusion  of  all  other 
nationalities.  It  had  been  almost  completely  successful  in  this  diocese  until  the  determined  stand 
of  the  parishioners  of  St.  Patrick's.'' 

t  As  a  proof  of  the  Cahensleyite  hatred  of  everthing  Irish:  in  the  diocese  of  Milwaukee,  the 
Bishop  appointed  a  Cahensleyite  priest  over  an  Irish  parish  dedicated  to  St.  Patrick.  He  soon 
changed  the  name  from  Patrick  to  Joseph.  Consider  the  animus  of  this,  and  the  dense  ignorance 
which  it  betrays,  for  it  is  well  known  to  every  ecclesiastical  scholar  that  Germany  was  Chris- 
tianized by  the  spiritual  sons  of  St.  Patrick.  Scarcely  a  cathedral  bell  is  rung  in  Germany 
that  does  not  sound  above  the  remains  of  some  Irish  missionary. 


14  Tfn    Bishop  of  Belleville,   Illinois,  vs. 

It  wa>  tin- solemn  declaration  of  a  dying  father  to  his  beloved  children,  and  it  did 
not  fail  to  reach  their  hearts  and  amuse  within  them  burning  resolutions  to  carry 
out  his  will  in  the  letter  and  in  the  spirit. 

Subsequent  events  proved  the  correctness  of  Father  O'Halloran's  judgment 
and  apprehension.  Ere  the  grand  old  soldier  of  the  cross  had  been  consigned  to 
his  grave,  aye  during  the  solemn  services  over  his  remains,  an  over-zealous  German 
friend  pointed  oul  Father  Cluse  as  the  future  pastor  of  St.  Patrick's,  and  a  priest 
close  to  his  Lordship  of  Belleville  confirmed  this  rumor  on  the  same  day. 

The  people  of  East  St.  Louis,  observing  the  rare  merits  and  ability  of  Father 
.lames  Downey,  for  years  their  virtual  pastor,  openly  advocated  his  cause,  con- 
sidering him  the  logical  and  rightful  successor  to  the  late  Father  O'Halloran. 
Accordingly  a  petition,  bearing  over  3,000  signatures,  was  presented  to  Bishop 
Janssen  requesting  the  appointment  of  Father  Downey  to  the  vacant  pastorate. 
Included  in  the  list  of  petitioners  were  the  members  of  the  Young  Ladies*  Sodality, 
the  Boys'  Sodality,  the  Catholic  Knights  of  Illinois,  the  Catholic  Knights  of 
America,  the  Knights  of  Father  Mathew,  the  Ancient  Order  of  Hibernians,  the 
Queen's  Daughters  and  the  Ladies'  Auxiliary  of  the  A.  <).  II.  Mayor  Stephens 
was  also  among  the  petitioners.  The  committee  in  charge  of  this  important 
petitioD  was  composed  of  Messrs.  Daniel  McGlynn,  Thomas  Hanifan  and  Patrick 
Kerrigan.  The  Bishop  received  these  gentlemen  favorably,  and  promised  to 
consider  their  request. 

Weary  months  of  feverish  expectation  had  passed  before  Bishop  Janssen 
revealed  his  long-entertained  intention.  On  May  2d  appeared  the  unfortunate 
announcement  that  Vicar-General  Cluse  of  Germantown  was  appointed  pastor  of 
St.   Patrick's  Church. 

Great  was  the  indignation  of  the  people  on  hearing  this  news.  Within  an 
hour  after  its  publication  a  meeting  was  called.  Over  fifty  prominent  men  of  the 
parish  attended.  Walter  J.  Broderick  acted  as  Chairman,  Dr.  John  Stack,  Secre- 
tary. The  other  officers  were  W.  J.  Heilly,  \\ .  J.  Kirk  and  City  Attorney  Daniel 
McGlynn. 

It  was  resolved  by  these  representative  men  of  the  parish  to  hold  a  mass- 
meeting  at  Music  Hall  on  May  5. 

Pursuant  to  this  call  a  very  large  meeting  of  the  parishioners  was  held  for  the 
purpose  of  protesting  against  the  proposed  action  of  Bishop  Janssen  of  Belleville. 


MISS  MARGARET  WALLACE. 

Miss  Wallace  is  the  accomplished  daughter  of  Mr.  Edward  Wallace,  vice-president  of 
the  Southern  Illinois  National  Bank  of  East  St.  Louis.    This  beautiful  young  lady  is 
naturally  looked  up  to  by  the  people  of  the  parish  because  of  her  luxurious  sur- 
rounding and  social  standing,  but  following  in  the  footsteps  of  her  honored 
father,  this  only  aided  her  to  accomplish  greater  results.     It  is  said  she  never 
missed  a  meeting  since  the  church  bells  tolled  a  note  of  warning  for 
the  parishioners  to  assemble  and  protect  their  church  property  against 
the    unwarranted    attempt  of  Bishop  Janssen  to  annex  it  to  the 
holdings  of  the  Priester  Verein   until  the  final  announcement  of 
the  unprecedented  victory.     The  influence  of  her  presence  at 
those  meetings  can  better  be  imagined  than  described.   Her 
patriotic   Irish  father's  heart,  ''whose  wealth  was  at  the 
disposal  of  the  committee  in  their  noble  work,"  must 
heave  with  just  pride  as  he   realizes  the  extent  to 
which  this  modest  girl  unconsciously  commands 
the  love  and  admiration  of  all  who   know   her. 


MR.   ROBERT  CUNNINGHAM 

Mr.  Cunningham   has  been  a  member  of  the  City  Council  and  School  Board 
in   East  St.  Louis  continuously  for  nearly  twenty  years,  which  speaks 
volumes  for  his  upright,  manly  character.    He  is  also  one  of  the 
most  respected  members  of  the  A.  0    H.  and   other   Irish 
organizations.      He  has  endeared   himself  to  his 
people  in  this  cause  by  his  open,  courageous 
and  liberal  support  in  their  unprece- 
dented  battle  for   iustice. 


St.  Patrick's  Parish,  East  St.  Louis,  Illinois.  15 

Former  Postmaster  of  the  National  Stock  Yards,  Walter  J.  Broderick,  called 
the  meeting  to  order.  He  was  unanimously  selected  permanent  chairman  and  Dr. 
Stack  was  selected  as  secretary.  Mr.  Broderick  made  the  first  speech.  He  said 
that  the  meeting  had  been  called  to  protest  against  the  appointment  of  a  German 
priest  to  an  Irish  congregation.  While  he  personally  was  always  on  good  terms 
with  the  Germans,  he  wanted  an  Irishman  in  the  pulpit  of  his  church.  He 
wanted  a  man  who  felt  as  he  did,  who  knew  what  the  Irish  race  had  to  contend 
with,  and  of  the  many  trials  they  undergo  which  a  priest  of  any  other  nationality 
could  not  understand,  and  further  would  not  be  interested  in. 

Upon  motion  of  Mr.  Thomas  Hanifan,  a  Committee  on  Resolutions  was 
appointed,  of  which  Prof.  T.  J.  McDonough  was  the  chairman.  Mr.  Patrick 
Kerrigan,  one  of  the  oldest  and  most  respected  members  of  the  congregation  and 
also  one  of  the  oldest  residents  of  East  St.  Louis,  was  called  upon  to  make  an 
address.  In  response  Mr.  Kerrigan  said  it  was  with  great  reluctance  that  he 
appeared  on  such  an  occasion,  but  he  felt  that  the  time  had  come  when  men  of  the 
parish  should  voice  their  sentiments.  He  closed  his  remarks  by  saying  that  the 
Irish  founded  East  St.  Louis  nearly  a  century  ago,  and  established  the  Church 
there  without  German  aid.  They  therefore  wanted  an  Irish  or  an  Irish- American 
pastor  in  whom  they  could  feel  happy  socially  and  religiously. 

Mr.  Kerrigan  was  followed  by  Messrs.  J.  J.  Rafter,  Daniel  McGlynn,  Prof. 
T.  J.  McDonough,  M.  J.  Walsh,  J.  J.  Heilly  and  others,  all  of  whom  spoke  in  the 
same  strain.  They  did  not  wish  to  be  understood  as  rebelling  against  the 
Catholic  Church  or  Catholic  doctrine  and  authority.  But  as  free  men,  and  men 
of  standing  in  the  community,  they  felt  that  they  had  been  wronged,  and  they 
wished  a  trial  of  their  cause  on  its  merits  before  the  proper  tribunals,  civil  or 
ecclesiastical.  They  would  hand  to  Bishop  Janssen  their  list  of  grievances  and 
ask  him  in  a  courteous  and  fair  way  to  consider  them,  at  all  times  recognizing  his 
authority  in  the  Church. 

In  case,  however,  he  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  their  statements  of  what  they 
considered  they  had  a  right  to  ask,  they  would  then  take  the  matter  direct  to 
Archbishop  Martinelli,  the  Apostolic  Delegate  at  Washington.  If  he  decided 
against  them  it  was  the  opinion  that  they  would  submit  to  the  inevitable  and 
accept  the  pastorate  of  Father  Cluse,  against  whom  personally  they  had  no 
grievance. 


16  Tin    Bishop  of  Belleville^  Illinois,  vs. 

Professor  T.  J.  McDonough,  J.  J.  Rafter,  Jerry  J.  Kane  and  City  Attorney 
Daniel  McGlynn,  besides  several  other  prominent  members  of  the  parish,  spoke 
in  the  same  vein,  all  agreeing  that  the  parish,  as  an  Irish  parish,  should  be 
given  an  Irish  priest. 

Professor  T.  J.  McDonough,  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Resolutions,  then 
introduced  a  sel  of  resolutions,  which,  after  being  read  amid  vociferous  cheering, 
was  adopted  without  a  dissenting  voice.  Copies  of  these  resolutions  were  sent  to 
Bishop  Janssen  and  Mgr.  Martinelli.     The  resolutions  read  as  follows: 

Whereas,  This  parish",  founded  in  1861,  and  named  after  Ireland's  beloved 
apostle,  St.  Patrick,  has  been  in  the  past  thirty-nine  years  the  banner  Irish-Ameri- 
can parish  of  the  diocese;   and, 

Whereas,  Its  splendid  church,  schools,  convent,  graveyard  and  presbytery 
have  been  built  and  paid  for  by  men  of  Irish  blood,  and  in  fullest  sympathy  with 
every  movement  for  the  upbuilding  of  Irishmen  at  home  and  abroad;   and, 

WHEREAS,  Irish  national  life  has  had  no  more  prolific  growth  than  in  this 
parish  and  among  this  people;  and, 

Whereas,  The  Germans  who  settled  in  East  St.  Louis  were  recognized  as  far 
hack  as  1866,  since  which  time  they  have  grown  to  be  a  great  and  powerful  organi- 
zation with  their  own  church,  schools,  convent,  presbytery  and  graveyard,  exclu- 
sively German,  of  the  Germans  and  for  the  Germans;  and, 

Whereas,  St.  Patrick's  Parish  has  always  done  its  whole  duty  towards  the 
support  of  the  diocesan  institutions,  including  the  orphan  asylum  and  seminary; 
and , 

Whereas,  The  people  of  St.  Patrick's  congregation  of  East  St.  Louis,  111., 
without  regard  to  age  or  sex,  have  learned  with  sincere  sorrow  of  the  action  of  our 
Right  Reverend  Bishop  John  Janssen  of  Belleville,  in  appointing,  as  pastor  of 
St.  Patrick's  congregation,  a  priest  of  German  birth,  Reverend  Father  Cluse  of 
Germantown,  111.,  thereby  ignoring  the  unanimously  expressed  wish  and  request 
of  the  whole  congregation  to  retain  their  present  beloved  acting  pastor,  Reverend 
James  Downey;  and, 

Whereas,  The  members  of  St.  Patrick's  congregation  have  been  loyal  and 
devoted  members  of  our  holy  mother  church,  and  at  all  times  in  the  past  submis- 
sive to  their  ecclesiastical  superiors,  and  in  every  direction  and  without  question 
responsive  to  every  demand,  legal,  moral  or  religious,  as  the  records  of  this  con- 
gregation during  the  past  thirty  years  fully  prove;  and, 

Whereas,  The  Reverend  James  Downey,  during  the  years  of  his  labor  among 
them,  as  curate  and  as  acting  rector,  has  won  the  everlasting  love  and  affection  of 
every  man,  woman  and  child  in  this  congregation;  by  bringing  erring  members 
back  into  the  fold,  by  visiting  and  alleviating,  often  from  his  own  purse,  the  wants 
of  the  sick  and  poor;  by  braving,  like  a  true  soldier  of  Christ,  the  dangers  of  the 
elements  and  pestilence,  in  care  of  his  flock;  by  taking  their  young  men  from  the 
streets  and  the  dangers  and  temptations  incident  thereto,  and  organizing  them  into 


PROFESSOR  THOMAS  J.   McDONOUGH, 

Superintendent  of   the    Public    School    of   East  St.    Louis,   possesses  a  high 

order  of  genius  as  a  poet  and  prose  writer.     He  has  endeared  himself  to 

the  people  by  his  beautiful  traits  of  character  and   his  upright  life. 

He  was  a  soldier  in  the  thickest  of  the  fight  to  enforce  the 

wishes  of  his  dear  friend,  Father  O'Halloran.  to  prevent  a 

German   priest  from  occupying  his  place.     This  loyal, 

physical  and  intellectual  giant  has  made  a  name  for 

himself  in  this  memorable  battle  that  his  family 

and  friends  may  well  feel   proud  of. 


MRS.  TOM   HANIFAN. 

We  fear  our  artist  has  not  done  justice  to  Mrs.  Hanifan  in  the  above  picture,  hence  we  are 

constrained  to  say  that  it  but  fairly  represents  one  of  the  truest  and  noblest  women  ever 

nurtured  at  the  breast  of  an  Irish   mother.      If  anything  were  needed  to  stimulate 

and  encourage  her  distinguished   husband  in  his  fearless  and  energetic  fight 

to  prevent  the  Cahensleyites  from  gaining  control  of  St.  Patrick's  church, 

it  certainly  was   supplied    by  this   brave   woman.      Her   name   and 

memory  will  be  cherished  by  the  rising  generation  of  St.  Patrick's 

parish  long  aftei  her  spirit  has  gone  to  its  heavenly  reward. 


MR.  TOM   HANIFAN. 


Mr.  Tom  Hanifan,  the  modern  Dean  Swift,  whose  sincerity,  determination  and 

sarcastic  wit  had   much  to  do  with  the  great  victory  achieved.     Modest, 

unassuming,  yet  as  brave  as  a  lion,  he  hoisted  the  banner  of  protection 

for  the  Irish   homes  of  St.  Patrick's  parish,  and  with  that  heroic 

devotion  which  has  characterized  his  whole  life  in  the  cause 

of   Ireland,  never  yielded  to  friend   or  foe   until  it  was 

safely  planted  on  the  threshold  of  the  church,  with 

victory  emblazoned  upon  it.     The  thousands 

of  Irishmen  who  know   him    personally 

and  will  recognize  his  picture  will 

say  with  one  acclaim  that  is  just 

what    we    would    expect 

from   Hanifan. 


BIRDIE  HEALEY.  MARY  N.   HURLEY.  MARY  E.  O'HANLON 

DENIAH   HANIFAN.  M.   HURLEY. 

The  above  group  is  a  fair  representation  of  the  youth  and  beauty  of  St.  Patrick's  parish,  who  were 
unyielding  in  their  determination  to  force  Bishop  Janssen  to  recognize  the  just  and  reason- 
able request  of  all  the  parishioners  for  an  Irish-American  priest.    To  their  everlasting 
credit  it  may  be  said  that  Hather  Downey  was  their  first  choice,  but  having 
yielded  that  point,  their  watchword  was:     "No  Cahensleyite." 


St.  Patrick's  Parish,  East  St.  Louis,  Illinois.  17 

societies  for  their  religious  education,  and  thereby  making  their  attention  and  de- 
votion to  Holy  Church  the  wonder  and  delight  of  all;  by  his  temperate  life, 
brilliant  education  and  acquirements,  zealous  care  of  all  who  have  been  blessed  by 
God  in  being  under  his  care,  his  life  of  piety,  charity  and  unquestionable  honor, 
and  by  his  attention  to  the  wants,  spiritual  and  temporal,  of  his  people,  he  has 
won  their  confidence  as  no  other  living  person  could;   and, 

Whereas,  The  appointment  of  any  one,  no  matter  whom  or  how  brilliant,  to 
the  position  which  their  beloved  pastor  now  occupies  would  be  in  direct  opposi- 
tion to  and  in  disregard  of  the  entire  congregation,  and  would  mark  the  beginning 
of  the  decline  and  fall  of  a  parish  built  by  years  of  labor  and  unremitting  toil,  and 
which  for  thirty  years  has  been  a  credit  to  the  Catholic  Church  of  Southern  Illinois; 
therefore,  be  it 

Resolved,  by  the  members  of  St.  Patrick's  congregation,  in  mass  meeting 
assembled,  that  we  solemnly  and  emphatically  protest  against  the  action  of  his 
Lordship,  the  Right  Reverend  Bishop  of  Belleville,  in  appointing  the  Reverend 
Father  Cluse  of  Germantown  to  the  pastorate  of  St.  Patrick's  Church  in  East  St. 
Louis,  as  unwise  and  in  total  disregard  of  the  wishes  of  the  entire  congregation  and 
as  detrimental  to  every  interest  of  this  parish,  present  and  future;   and  be  it  further 

Resolved,  That  we  solemnly  pledge  ourselves  to  resist  and  oppose  by  all  proper 
and  lawful  means  the  consummation  of  this  proposed  action,  which  forebodes  so 
much  evil  to  ourselves,  our  families  and  our  beloved  parish;  and. in  peaceful 
defense  of  our  just  rights  appeal  to  the  representative  of  the  Holy  Father,  Mgr. 
Martinelli,  to  whose  wise  adjudication  we  submit  our  complaints  and  our  prayers 
for  protection. 

Some  of  the  prominent  parishioners  who  occupied  seats  on  the  stage  were : 
M.  J.  Walsh,  J.  J.  Hilley,  Jeremiah  Coffey,  Thomas  Hayes,  City  Attorney  Daniel 
McGlynn,  Patrick  Wallace,  John  J.  Snowball,  Patrick  Kerrigan,  Thomas  Erwin, 
Thomas  Hanifan,  John  Monahan,  Doctor  John  Stack,  Justice  Patrick  McKane, 
Professor  T.  J.  McDonough,  W.  P.  Burke,  Peter  Sullivan,  Richard  Nash,  Walter 
Coonan,  Jerry  J.  Kane  and  J.  J.  Rafter. 

The  deliberations  of  the  assemblage,  writes  the  reporter  of  the  Globe- Democrat, 

were  marked  by  due  regard  for  propriety  in  every  respect.     Not  an  unkind  word 

was  spoken  of  the  bishop  or  the  priest  selected  for  the  place.     The  act,  however, 

of  sending  the  German  priest  to  an  Irish  congregation  was  condemned  in  unmeasured 

terms.     In  illustration  of  the  kindly  spirit  and  dignified  bearing  of  the  parishioners 

throughout  this  prolonged  contest,  we  publish  the  letter  of  Dennis  McCarthy,  to 

the  Post-Dispatch. 

East  St.  Louis,  May  9th. 
Will  you  kindly  grant  me  space  in  your  columns  for  a  few  remarks  concerning 
the  trouble  over  the  appointment  of  Rev.   Father  Cluse  to  the  pastorate   of   St. 


18  Tin    Bishop  of  Hi  Hi  rill,.   Illinois,  vs. 

Patrick's  Church  in  Easl  St.  Louis.  A  citizen  of  Gennantown,  in  this  evening's 
Post- Dispatch,  writes  in  terms  highly  eulogistic  of  his  pastor,  and  I  have  no  desire 
to  take  issue  with  him.  Father  Cluse  is  doubtless  a  very  estimable  gentleman. 
Nobody  here  has  any  objections  to  him  personally.  What  the  people  of  St. 
Patrick's  parish  objecl  to  is  the  anomaly  of  a  German  being  appointed  pastor  of 
an  exclusively  Irish  congregation,  just  as  the  German  Catholics  of  Germantown 
would  be  certain  to  do  if  any  but  a  German  priest  were  sent  to  preside  over  them. 

The  people  of  St.  Patrick's  deprecate  any  action  tending  to  unfriendly 
relations  with  their  German  fellow  citizens,  leasl  of  all  with  their  co-religionists, 
ami  if  any  such  deplorable  result  must  ensue,  let  the  blame  rest  on  the  author  of 
this  injudicious  appointment,  the  Right  Reverend  Bishop  Janssen.  In  almost 
every  diocese  in  the  I'nited  States  in  which  German  bishops  preside  trouble  of  this 
nature  has  resulted.  In  Newark,  X.  J.;  Milwaukee  and  Denver  reactionary 
German  bishops  have  tried  to  introduce  the  methods  of  llerr  Cahensley,  with 
results  invariably  prejudicial  to  the  best  interests  of  the  church,  and  which  the  Holy 
Father  himself  has  seen  fit  to  discountenance  in  no  uncertain  language. 

Irish  Roman  Catholics  stand  pre-eminent  as  the  most  liberal  and  tolerant 
Christian  people  in  the  universe,  as  the  troubled  history  of  the  country  amply 
proves.  They  have  never  even  hated  their  cruel  oppressors  on  religious  grounds. 
No  German,  or  priest  of  any  other  nationality,  can  show  one  case  of  unfriendly 
discrimination  against  an  Irish-American  bishop.  The  Archbishop  of  St.  Louis 
selects  as  his  Vicar-General  a  German,  Mgr.  Muehlsiepen,  to  whom  he  refers  all 
matters  concerning  the  spiritual  welfare  of  German-American  Catholics  under  his 
charge,  whilst  the  Bishop  of  Belleville  seeks  to  impose  his  German  Vicar-General 
on  the  most  Irish  parish  south  of  Chicago. 

If  it  is  true  that  Father  Cluse  considers  he  is  making  a  sacrifice  in  coming  to 
East  St.  Louis,  let  him  remain  where  he  is  appreciated.  Nobody  here  wants  any 
sacrifice  from  him.  We  are  of  the  opinion  that  Father  Downey  can  accomplish 
more  good  here  in  one  year  that  Father  Cluse  could  in  twenty. 

Dennis  McCarthy, 

Thirteenth  and  Natalia  Avenue. 

Father  Koenig,  pastor  of  St.  Henry's  church,  East  St.  Louis,  had  the  impru- 
dence to  publish  a  letter  in  defence  of  the  Bishop's  position,  taking  a  most  distorted 
view  of  the  case,  and  indulging  in  statements  which  were  not  founded  in  fact. 

The  Board  of  Trustees  replied  to  him   at  great   length  and  in  a  very  aide 

manner.     They  close  their  reply  thus : 

We  have  engaged  in  a  struggle  for  our  rights,  and  we  will  never  submit  to 
such  un-Catholic  and  bigoted  treatment.  The  Irish  Catholics  can  look  the  world 
in  the  face  without  a  blush.  For  800  years  the  persecutions,  infamies  and  outrages 
of  Cromwell,  Elizabeth  and  Henry  VIII.  have  been  unavailing  to  shake  the  faith 
of  the  Irish  Catholic,  and  to-day  they  are  engaged  in  an  honorable,  open  warfare 
for  their  rights.     None  of  the  reasons  assigned  for  the  appointment  of  Father  Cluse 


DR.  JOHN  STACK. 

Dr.  John  Stack  is  a  physician  and  surgeon  of  recognized  abiiity.     He  is  a  native  of 
East  St.  Louis,  and  has  always  been  regarded  as  faithful  and  true.     His  intelli- 
gence and   moral   courage    contributed   much  to  the  great    victory  over 
German   nationalism.     To  his  keen  diplomacy,  exercised  at  a  very 
opportune  time,  may  be  attributed  the  unanimity  with  which  the 
men  and  women  of  St.  Patrick's  parish  so  heroically  resisted 
the  acceptance  of  Father  Cluse  as  their  pastor.      He 
holds  a  warm   place  in  the  hearts  of  his  people, 
and   may   well    be  styled  the  "grand  young 
man"  of  East  St.   Louis. 


MR.  WALTER  J.   BRODERICK. 

Mr.  Walter  J.  Broderick,  one  of  the  most  prominent  live  stock  commission  men 

in  Illinois,  is  a  man  of  marked   intelligence  and  keen  discernment;   in  a 

word,  a  man  of  most  excellent  qualities  of  head  and  heart.     He  stands 

high   in  the  community  and  enjoys  a  spotless  reputation.     He 

would  defend  the  honor  of  a  true  priest  with   his  life,  but 

would    not   tolerate    injustice    from    the    Pope.       His 

magnificent    letter    to    Rev.    Gough    on    another 

page  will   be  read  with    interest. 


St.  Patrick's  Parish,  East  St.  Louis,  Illinois.  19 

are  true,  and  under  no  circumstances  will  he  be  permitted  to  take  charge  of  this 
parish.  It  is  purely  an  attempt  to  give  one  of  the  best  parishes  in  the  diocese  to  a 
German  where  there  is  not  one  of  his  nationality. 

His  Lordship  misunderstands  the  temper  of  our  people  if  he  imagines  that  we 
will  ever  submit  to  such  outrageous  treatment.  When  our  parish  was  $40,000  in 
debt  a  German  was  not  sent  to  us  to  shoulder  the  burden,  but  good  Father 
O'Halloran  was  assigned  to  this  difficult  task,  and  after  a  few  years  all  of  this 
debt,  in  which  was  included  an  indebtedness  which  was  barred  by  law,  was  paid 
in  full.  Now  we  are  asked  to  turn  the  fruits  of  these  years  of  toil  and  sacrifice  over 
to  one  not  of  our  race,  in  the  interest  of  German  nationalism.     We  will  never  do  it. 

(Signed)  W.  J.  Broderick,  President. 

Doctor  John  Stack,  Secretary. 

Wm.  J.  HiLLEY,  Treasurer. 

Thomas  Doyle,  Trustee. 

James  Goff,  Trustee. 

A  committee,  consisting  of  City  Attorney  Daniel  McGlynn,  Thomas  Hanifan 
and  Dr.  John  Stack,  representatives  of  St.  Patrick's  parish,  were  appointed  to  lay 
their  appeal  before  Mgr.  Martinelli.  Learning  that  the  Apostolic  Delegate  was  at 
Notre  Dame,  Ind.,  they  decided  to  visit  him  there.  The  committeemen  say 
they  were  received  most  graciously,  and  assured  by  the  Delegate  that  he  would 
send  a  letter  at  once  to  the  Bishop  directing  him  not  to  allow  Father  CI  use  or  any 
other  priest  to  go  to  St.  Patrick's  parish  until  the  matter  could  be  laid  before  the 
Delegate  and  both  sides  of  the  controversy  heard.  The  committee  returned  con- 
tent with  what  it  had  accomplished. 

Bishop  Janssen  addressed  the  following  letter  to  the  parishioners  of  St. 
Patrick's  church: 

Dearly  Beloved  Parishioners  of  St.  Patrick's  Church,  East  St.  Louis,  III. : 

The  rectorship  of  your  church  became  vacant  on  December  29  of  last  year  by 
the  death  of  your  beloved  pastor,  the  Rev.  P.  J.  O'Halloran.  Immediately  after- 
ward you  petitioned  me  that  I  might  appoint  as  his  successor  the  Rev.  James 
Downey,  wrho,  for  more  than  six  years  as  assistant  to  the  lamented  Father 
O'Halloran,  had  endeared  himself  to  you  by  the  zealous  exercise  of  his  priestly 
duties.  After  mature  deliberation  and  continuous  fervent  prayer  during  the  time 
of  four  months,  I  deemed  it  best  before  God  and  my  conscience  to  appoint  as  your 
rector  the  Very  Reverend  W.  Cluse,  V.  G.,  retaining  the  Rev.  Father  Downey  as 
his  assistant.  I  most  candidly  and  emphatically  assure  you,  pledging  my  word 
of  honor  as  a  Bishop  of  the  Church  of  God,  that  my  action  was  not  influenced  in 
the  slightest  degree  by  motives  of  race  prejudice  or  national,  personal  favoritism, 
but  solely  by  the  desire  to  promote  the  honor  of  God,  the  good  of  our  holy  religion 
and  the  salvation  of  your  immortal  souls. 


20  Tin    Bishop  of  Belleville,   Tllinoia,   vs. 

Instead  of  dutifully  submitting  to  my  appointment  and  being  ready  to  receive 

the  priest  whom  I  selected  to  send  to  you  as  the  shepherd  of  your  souls,  as  it 
befitted  obedient  children  of  the  Catholic  Church  and  true,  faithful  clients  of  St. 
Patrick,  whom  you  venerate  as  the  patron  saint  of  your  church,  you  allowed  your- 
selves to  be  stirred  up  into  passionate  feelings  of  un-Catholic,  narrow-minded 
nationalism,  and  to  break  out  into  open  revolt  against  your  lawful  ecclesiastical 
superior.  Words  are  failing  me  to  express  adequately  how  by  your  proceedings 
during  the  past  three  weeks  you  have  grieved  the  heart  of  your  Bishop  and  have 
given  to  the  world,  to  Catholics,  as  well  as  non-Catholics,  the  exceedingly  scandal- 
ous and  pernicious  example  of  dangerous  rebellion  against  lawful  authority. 

There  were  those  among  you  who  had  the  audacity  to  convoke  a  mass-meeting 
for  the  avowed  purpose  of  ostentatiously  venting  their  ire  against  your  bishop  and 
baffling  his  action.  Five  members  of  your  parish  went  so  far  as  to  invite  to  this 
meeting  by  telegraph  not  only  myself,  hut  also  the  worthy  priest  whom  I  had 
appointed  as  your  rector.  You  appealed  to  the  most  reverend  apostolic  delegate 
that  he  might  induce  me  to  revoke  my  appointment. 

I  now  inform  you  that  his  Excellency,  Mgr.  Martinelli,  has  ratified  my 
appointment  of  the  Very  Reverend  W.  Cluse,  V.  G.,  as  rector  of  St.  Patrick's 
church,  East  St.  Louis,  111.,  and  at  the  same  time  I  entreat  and  command  you  by 
all  that  is  most  dear  and  sacred  to  you,  to  desist  at  once  from  your  ungrounded 
opposition.  Do  not,  I  beg  and  warn  you,  drive  your  bishop  by  jour  prolonged 
opposition,  into  the  most  unfortunate  and  unavoidable  necessity  of  leaving  your 
parish  altogether  without  a  priest. 

If  by  next  Friday  evening,  the  "iiUh  inst.,  your  opposition  to  my  appointment 
has  not  ceased,  the  guards  around  St.  Patrick's  Church  and  parochial  residence 
have  not  been  recalled  and  full  assurance  has  been  given  to  me  that  the  Very  Rev. 
Father  Cluse,  V.  G.,  can  take  charge  of  St.  Patrick's  parish  without  being  molested, 
I  shall  be  compelled,  to  my  sincerest  regret,  to  leave  your  congregation  without 
the  service  of  any  priest  until  you  submit. 

May  the  Holy  Ghost  in  this  octave  of  Pentecost  enlighten  and  strengthen  you 
to  fully  understand  and  humbly  acknowledge  the  deplorable  errors  into  which 
misguiding  leaders  have  precipitated  you.  You  can  yet  preclude  and  repair  the 
sad  effects  of  the  scandal  already  caused  by  now  welcoming  the  newly  appointed 
pastor  who  comes  to  you  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  to  devote  his  priestly  labors  to 
the  temporal  and  spiritual  welfare  of  your  church. 

Do  this,  I  beseech  you,  by  the  honor  of  the  Blessed  Trinity,  by  the  love  and 
mercy  of  the  sacred  heart  of  Jesus  Christ,  who  died  on  the  cross  to  lead  us  all  to 
heavenly  bliss,  by  the  good  of  our  holy  faith  and  the  salvation  of  your  immortal 
souls. 

In  loving  solicitude,  I  affectionately  bestow  upon  all  of  you  my  episcopal 
blessing. 

Given  at  the  episcopal  rasidence,  Belleville,  111.,  the  23d  day  of  May,  1899. 

f  J.  Janssen, 

Bishop  of  Belleville. 


MRS.  GEO.  CASHEL. 


MRS.  ELLEN  HEALEY. 


MR.  GEO.  H   CASHEL. 


Mr.  and  Mrs.  Geo.  H.  Cashel  are  here  seated  with  their  old  and'true  friend  Mrs.  Ellen  Healey.    They 
were  conspicuous  in  the  gallant  fight  for  the  preservation  of  their  church  and  parish  from  the 
baneful   influence  of  Cahensleyism       Mr.  Cashel  is  one  of  the  most  respected  men  in  East 
St.  Louis,  and  justly  so.     No  truer  Irishman  ever  lived.     He  was  dreaded  by  the  oppressors 
of  his  people  in  Ireland,  "the  police  and  landlords,"  just  as  he  is  feared  by  those  who 
would  endeavor  to  abridge  their  rights  "even  in  church  circles"  in  the   land  of  his 
adoption.     The  police  of  his  native  town   in   Ireland  will   never  forgive  him  for 
encouraging  a  mischievous  spy   to    betray  them   into  unearthing  a  large  box 
supposed  to  contain  modern  firearms  buried  in  a  neighboring  graveyard,  and 
hauling  it  to  headquarters  only  to  discover  a  nauseating  spectacle  unfit  to 
mention  in  this  publication.     He  is  a  man  of  unimpeachable  character 
and  unflinching  courage,  generous  to  a  fault,  and  loyal  to  his  friends. 
May  he  be  spared  for  many  many  years  to  enjoy  with  his  family  his 
worldly  accumulations  of  a  well  spent  life,  and  may  his  right  hand 
retain  its  youthful  power  to  wield  with  unabated  vigor  his  trusted 
"ba'tle  ax"  until  the  last  vestige  of  the  power  of  that  detest- 
able organization,  the  Priester  Verein,  is  completely  annihi- 
lated.    Should  that  splendid  weapon  ever  get  dulled  in 
the  execution  of  this  pleasant  diversion  we  will  furnish 
a  grindstone,  and   a  man  to  turn  it  too,  until  it  is 
restored  to  its  normal  condition,  and  then  offer  up 
a  prayer  to  heaven  for  the  speedy  and  success- 
ful   termination    of   the    holy    war. 


MISS  FRANCES  KERRIGAN.         MISS  AGNES  KERRIGAN  MISS  MARGARET  FLYNN. 

FRANK  ECCLES.  DAN  CONNELLY.  M   J.  HANIFAN. 

Mr.  Dan  Connelly,  a  leader  in   East  St.  Louis  business  circles,  whose  advice  is  sought  on 

many  important  matters,  is  here  seated  with  a  few  of  his  young  friends  who,  like 

himself,  were  in  the  front  line  of  battle  when  the  fight  was  hottest.     Of  the 

hundreds  engaged  in  this  righteous  struggle   none  worked   harder  or 

accomplished  more  than   Dan  and   his  young  vo'unteers. 


St.  Patrick's  Parish,  East   St.   Louis,  Illinois.  21 

There  was  an  informal  conference  of  the  parishioners  in  front  of  the  church 
Wednesday  evening,  at  which  it  was  decided  that  the  position  assumed  by  the 
communicants  would  be  maintained  in  any  emergency. 

A  member  of  the  committee  on  guard  at  St.  Patrick's  church  in  East  St.  Louis, 
in  discussing  Bishop  Janssen's  recent  letter  to  the  parishioners,  said: 

The  appeal  of  the  Bishop  of  Belleville  to  the  people  of  St.  Patrick's  parish  was 
unfortunate  in  that  it  made  reference  to  the  Apostle  of  Ireland.  St.  Patrick  was  a 
very  different  man  from  Bishop  Janssen.  He  had  no  undying  affection  for  his 
"beloved  mother  tongue."  He  did  not  introduce  German,  or  American,  or  French, 
into  the  Cathedral  of  Armagh;  he  did  not  encourage  young  men  from  the  continent 
to  come  over  to  Ireland  and  till  all  the  rich  parishes.  He  did  not  encourage  the 
clergy  he  brought  over  with  him  to  do  all  in  their  power  to  perpetuate  their 
"beloved  mother  tongue. "  He  did  not  appoint  a  Vicar-General  who  was  fresh  from 
a  parish  in  Gaul,  He  did  not  neglect  the  Irish  language  himself  nor  permit  the 
clergy  to  neglect  it. 

He  did  not  after  11  years  of  his  episcopate  have  it  to  say  that  he  had  no  Irish 
priests  to  fill  the  parishes  of  his  diocese. 

Bishop  Patrick,  some  say,  was  a  Frenchmen,  but  he  did  not  advertise  his 
nationality  by  attending  all  the  French  and  German  vereins  and  conventions 
organized  on  the  other  side  of  the  channel  for  the  purpose  of  perpetuating  the 
"beloved  mother  tongue."  He  did  not  shut  up  churches  on  account  of  his 
"beloved  mother  tongue."  He  did  not  close  any  Irish  Catholic  schools  and  turn 
the  children  of  the  Irish  adrift,  for  the  sake  of  the  "beloved  mother  tongue." 

He  did  not  forbid  the  Holy  Sacrifice  of  the  mass  in  any  Irish  parish  because 
he  discerned  some  resentment  to  his  "beloved  mother  tongue."  He  did  not  stop 
the  May  devotions  of  the  Irish  to  the  Blessed  Mother  of  God  because  they  would 
not  listen  to  them  sung  or  said  in  the  halting  accents  borrowed  from  the  "beloved 
mother  tongue." 

No !  The  Bishop  of  Belleville  is  not  like  the  first  Archbishop  of  Armagh.  He  is 
more  like  the  Spanish  Queen,  who,  because  she  lost  her  "beloved"  child,  issued  a 
decree  forbidding  her  people  to  believe  in  God  for  12  months,  so  as  to  teach  the 
Almighty  a  lesson  as  Bishop  Janssen  would  to  the  Irish  of  East  St.  Louis. 

In  the  meantime  Bishop  Janssen  issued  orders  that  St.  Patrick's  Church  be 

closed  until  the  parishioners  submit  to  his  appointment.     Father  Downey,  who 

had  been  in  charge  of  the  parish,  was  ordered  to  Belleville,  and  thus  were  4,000 

souls  left  shepherdless. 


Th    Bishop  of  Belleville,  Illinois, 


PROTESTED  IN  GOOD  FAITH. 


The  ,„.,,,,,,.  v  „-,,,•{  in  their  Catholic  instincts  in  assuming  so  definite  a 

stand  against  the  appointment  of  a  I  German  priest  to  the  pastorate  of  their  church. 

They  acted  in  g 1  faith   from  the  beginning,  though  they  were  styled  by  the 

Cahensleyite  organs  rebels  and  schismatics.     They  were  assured  by  many  of  the 

jywho  warmly  advocated  their  cause  that  they  were  within  their  rights,  and 

that  their  protest  was  in  har ny  with  the  legislation  of  the  Church,  which  tended 

to  remove  any  doubt  as  Lo  the  morality  of  their  action.  They  firmly  believed  that 
their  episcopal  ruler  permitted  himself  to  be  betrayed  into  a  flagrant  violation  of 
justice  ami  good  taste  in  blindly  ignoring  the  voice  and  will  of  the  people,  and  in 
so  unwisely  thrusting  upon  them  a  German  priesl  against  whose  acceptance  they 

tpenly  declared. 
Before  entering  into  the  merits  of  their  case  we  cannot  do  better  than  to  repro- 
duce  their  own   published  statements,  setting  forth  their  true  position,  and  the 

sons  for  their  action.     Evidently  smarting  under  the  gross  charges  and  misre- 
•  ntations  urged  against   them  by  the  enemy,  the  following  communication 
appeared  in  the  Post- Dispatch  of  .Inly  30th. 

THE  ECCLESIASTICAL  VIEW  OF  ST.  PATRICK'S  TROUBLE. 

Much  has  been  said  and  written  on  our  present  ecclesiastical  difficulty  at  East 
St.  I.onis,  until  the  topic  is  becoming  tedious  and  anything  but  edifying. 

At  first  sight  it  seems  an  unwarranted  rebellion  against  legitimate  episcopal 
authority.  If  it  were  SO  it  were  indeed  a  grievous  evil.  All  well-regulated  and 
conservative  minds  must  deprecate  discord  and  disunion  more  than  all  within  the 
household  of  the  faith. 

Authority  is  the  mainspring  of  government,  and,  of  course,  authority  implies 
obedience.  These  principle-  are  deeply  rooted  in  the  Irish  Catholic  mind.  Asa 
people  we  consider  ourselves  second  to  none  in  the  world  in  our  deep  Catholic  faith 
in  the  divine  episcopate,  and  in  our  exalted  conception  of  its  -races  and  powers. 
Rebellion  against  Church  authority  has  never  been  a  characteristic  of  our  people. 


■ 

MR    J.  J.   KANE. 


Mr.  Kane  was  City  Clerk  of  East  St.  Louis  for  six  years,  retiring  two  years  ago 

with  an   unblemished   record.     He  is  one  of  the  most  popular  young 

men  in  that  city,  and  as  in  ail  other  cases  where  injustice  was 

sought   to   be    practiced,    was   in   the   front  rank   in   this 

battle  pouring  hot  shot  into  the  enemy's  camp. 


MRS    DENNIS  P.  SULLIVAN. 

Mrs.  Sullivan  was  one  of  the  bright  stars  in  this  wonderful   drama.     She  has 
endeared  herself  both  to  the  Irish  and  American  people  of  East  St.  Louis 
by  her  dignified  resistance  to  the  shameful  attempt  of  Bishop  Janssen 
to  humiliate  the  people  of  St.  Patrick's  Parish  by  forcing  them 
to  accept  a  German  pastor  so  closely  allied  with  that  detest- 
able organization  known  as  the  Priester  Verein.     She  is 
a  worthy  daughter  of  Erin,  and  well  deserves  the 
position  she  occupies  in  the  front  ranks  of 
the    social    set    in    East    St.    Louis. 


MR.   DENNIS  P.  SULLIVAN. 

No  truer  friend  of  the  Irish  people  ever  crossed  the  Atlantic,  and  no  one  more 

determined  to  fight  for  their   just    rights,  either    against  a  Cahens- 

leyite  Bishop  or  an  Irish  landlord  than  D.  P.  Sullivan.    He  deserves 

well  of  his  people,  and  they  are  justly  proud  of  him. 


t   Arnni. 


MR    FRANK  J    HEALEY. 


Mr   Frank  J   Healey.oneof  the  bright,  prosperous  young  men  of  East  St.  Louis, 

was  captain  of  the  guard  at  St.  Patrick's  church.     With  such  a  true 

Irishman   protecting  their   interests,  the   parishioners  could 

well  declare  with  safety  that  Father  Cluse  would 

never  enter  the  church  as  their  pastor 


St.  Patrick's  Parish,  East   St.  Louis,  Illinois.  23 

The  late  Pius  IX.  of  holy  memory,  mindful  of  our  unceasing  fidelity  to  the  chair 
of  truth  and  authority,  styled  us  "the  most  faithful  children  of  the  Church  of  God." 

In  this  respect  the  parishioners  of  St.  Patrick's  Church  in  East  St.  Louis  are 
true  to  the  traditions  of  their  fathers.  They  are  a  faithful,  noble  and  generous 
people,  to  whom  a  true  priest  is  a  Sogarth  Aroon. 

Our  people  have  been  taught  to  distinguish  between  the  man  and  the  office. 
They  have  been  also  taught  that  power  is  a  trust  gratis  data,  as  theologians  say, 
which  is  given  for  the  benefit  of  the  people,  and  not  for  the  caprice  or  arbitrary 
will  of  the  possessor.  The  Church  has  no  place  for  ecclesiastical  monarchs  or 
arbitrary  rulers.  In  consonance  with  her  divine  spirit  the  Pope  styles  himself 
"the  servant  of  servants."  The  Church  has  always  set  her  face  against  absolutism 
in  Church  and  State.  She  is  the  mother  of  liberty  in  the  political  as  well  as  in  the 
religious  world.  She  loves  the  people.  She  speaks  to  parents,  to  political  and 
religious  rulers — priests,  bishops  and  popes — after  the  manner  of  our  Lord:  "See 
that  you  despise  not  one  of  these  little  ones."  In  the  Catholic  Church  the  people 
are  deemed  the  vehicle  of  Catholic  thought  and  principle  of  which  bishops  are 
witnesses  and  exponents.  The  Church  is  not  an  autocracy.  St.  Jerome  remarks: 
"Bishops  are  to  remember  that  they  are  priests,  not  lords."  The  bishop's  duty, 
according  to  St.  Bernard,  is  "to  avoid  alienating  the  faithful."  From  even  the 
days  of  the  apostles  the  Church  has  manifested  a  democratic  spirit.  Witness  the 
election  of  an  apostle  where  St.  Peter,  with  over  a  hundred  of  the  laity,  selected 
one  to  take  the  place  of  Judas.  This  democratic  principle  of  consulting  the 
interests  and  will  of  the  people  became  interwoven  with  the  Church's  general  legis- 
lation. The  history  of  the  Church  is  replete  with  instances  where  popes  have  been 
compelled  to  remind  ignorant  or  wayward  clerics  of  the  rights  and  privileges  of  the 
people,  even  in  the  appointment  of  bishops.  "No  bishop  should  be  placed  over 
people  against  their  will,"  says  Pope  Celestine  I.  "When  there  is  question  of 
electing  the  chief  priest,"  writes  Leo  the  Great,  "let  him  be  preferred  above  all 
others  who  is  required  by  consent  of  both  clergy  and  people;  and  if  the  votes 
should  be  equal,  let  the  metropolitan  prefer  him  who  has  obtained  most  affection, 
and  is  a  man  of  greater  merit;  only  give  heed  that  none  shall  be  chosen  who  are 
not  wished  for  or  asked  for;  lest  the  people,  being  thwarted,  should  despise  and 
hate  their  bishop,  or  lest  they  should  become  less  religious  than  is  fitting,  not 
having  obtained  him  they  desired."  What  holy  horror  would  be  aroused  to-day 
among  undiscerning  weaklings  were  a  people  to  protest  against  the  admission  of 
a  bishop  who  would  be  a  stranger  to  their  ways  and  manners — an  intruder,  in  the 
language  of  Pope  Julius  I.  And  yet  were  they  to  do  so  they  would  be  acting  in 
accordance  with  divine  tradition  and  apostolic  law. 

Now,  if  the  law  of  the  Church  forbids  the  appointment  of  a  bishop  over  a 
people  unwilling  to  receive  him,  and  calls  him  an  "intruder,"  who  dares  to  assume 
the  charge;  a  fortiori  it  condemns  the  appointment  of  a  pastor  over  a  people  who 
hold  him  in  aversion. 

To  come  to  concrete  matters,  let  us  enter  into  an  analysis  of  the  difficulty 
under  consideration.  The  first  antagonistic  element,  so  visible  on  the  surface,  is 
German    nationalism.      This    policy   is    as    un-American    as   it   is    un-Catholic. 


24  p  of  BelL  >>'il>-,  Illinois, 

Cabensleyism  is  another  name  for  it.  and  we  all  know  how  quickly  the  broad- 
minded  Leo  XIII.  Bel  bis  fool  upon  it  when  brought  to  hie  notice  by  the  American 
bishops.  Cabensleyism  meant  the  setting  forth  a  claim  for  German  representation 
the  Catholic  Church  of  America— the  very  principle  denied  by  Bishop  Jan.-  □ 
to  his  Irish  brethren  througboul  his  dioc< 
.  then  art  a  jewel." 

It    is    this    Bpirit   of    self-interesl    that    begol    the   so-called    Reformation   in 

many  according  to  the  opinion  of  Frederick  the  Great.  It  is  a  spirit  unworthy 
of  a  Catholic  bishop,  who  Bhould  make  himself  all  to  all  in  order  to  gain  all — a 

k  to  the  Greeks  and  a  Hebrew  to  the  Hebrews.  Hew  unlike  our  divine  Lord 
is  a  Cahensleyite  bishop.     Hear  wh.it  Holy  Scripture  Bays: 

■  \n-l  one  Baid  unto  him:  Behold  thy  mother  and  thy  brethren  stand  without 
seeking  thee.  But  he  answering  him  thai  told  him,  said:  Who  is  my  mother, 
and  who  are  my  brethren?     And  stretching  forth  his  hand  towards  his  disciples, 

aid:  Behold  my  mother  and  my  brethren.  For  whosoever  shall  do  the  will 
of  my  Father,  that  is  in  heaven,  he  is  my  brother  and  sister  and  mother." 
(St.  Matthew  xii.  47  to  •" 

The  late  Father  O'Halloran  of  blessed  memory,  though  an  intense  Irishman, 
was  an  American  ofthemosl  broad-minded  type.  It  might  have  been  said  of  him : 
"He  loved  justice  and  hated  iniquity." 

It  was  refreshing  to  hear  his  manly  denunciation  of  this  German  nationalism 
and  utilitarian  principles.  This  spirit  he  bequeathed  to  his  beloved  flock.  Even 
in  his  dying  hours  he  nobly  resented  the  Bavage  rudeness  of  the  man  who  almost 
announced  himself  as  his  successor.  So  correct  was  the  good  father's  intuition  of 
the  matter  that  he  gave  expression  to  the  hope  that  this  reverend  gentleman  should 
not  succeed  him.  His  beloved  friend-  heard  this  dying  wish,  and  they  secretly 
vowed  that  Buch  a  consummation  should  never  come  to  pass. 

Now,  on  the  day  of  Father  < )' I Ialloran's  funeral  it  was  well  known  and 
admitted  by  the  bishop's  household  that  Rev.  Cluse  was  the  one  slated  for  the 
office,  as  the  politicians  say.  What  can  an  intelligent  people  think  of  a  bishop, 
after  this,  who  unblushingly  tells  them  that  his  ehoice  for  the  rectorship  of  their 
parish  was  the  result  of  long  ami  prayerful  deliberation?  The  unfortunate  man 
nol  only  lowered  himself  in  their  estimation,  hut  actually  became  an  object  of  their 

i  and  contempt.  Action  and  reaction  are  equal  and  contrary.  The  love  and 
reaped  for  the  pries!  and  the  bishop,  so  characteristic  of  the  Irish  people,  gave  way 
to  a  spirit  of  abomination  for  the  man  who  drags  his  sacred  office  in  the  dust;  who 
"Wears  the  livery  of  the  court  of  heaven  to  serve  the  devil  in." 

Not  only  was  tin-  appointment  not  the  result  of  long  and  prayerful  delibera- 
tion, but  horrible  to  relate,  a  matter  decided  on  before  the  death  of  our  beloved 

>r.  \-  the  andean  vulture  of  the  Andes,  scenting  the  odor  of  death  in  the 
still  living  body,  swoops  down  upon  his  luckless  victim  and  begins  at  once  to  dis- 

of  him.  bo  before  the  peaceful  Bleep  of  death  had  visited  our  beloved  pastor 
the  holy  bishop  set  his  covetous  eyes  on  the  fruitful  pasture,  and  resolved  upon 
carrying  out  his  usual  programme. 


MR.   PATRICK   KERRIGAN. 

Mr.  Patrick  Kerrigan   must  go  down  in  the  history  of  East  St.  Louis  as  one  of  her 
most  highly  honored  citizens.    Only  high-handed  injustice  and  a  blind  adminis- 
tration on  the  part  of  a  bishop  could   provoke  so  estimable  a  Catholic  as 
Mr.  Kerrigan,  so  remarkable  for  his  kindness  and  gentleness  of  heart. 


loronto 


MR    P.   F.  O'SULLIVAN. 

Mr  0  Sullivan  is  a  liquor  dealer  and  one  of  the  most  prominent  and  popular  men 

in  his  line  of  business  in  East  St.  Louis.     His  time  and  money  was  freely 

given  in  the  glorious  fight  against  Germanizing  St   Patrick's  Parish. 


St.   Patrick's  Parish,  East  St.  Louis,  Illinois.  25 

Our  people  were  aware  of  his  saintly  intentions,  yet  they  hoped  he  would  alter 
them  upon  their  appeal  in  behalf  of  Father  Downey,  who  had  been  ministering  to 
them  for  years  in  the  capacity  of  assistant,  and  who  had  won  their  hearts,  as  only  a 
priestcan  do  who  is  in  thorough  sympathy  with  his  people,  and  whois  one  in  heart  and 
soul  with  them.  Committees  of  men  and  women  hastened  to  Belleville  and  sought 
his  lordship,  beseeching  him  to  grant  them  the  desire  of  their  hearts  by  appointing 
Father  Downey  as  their  pastor.  The  good  bishop  is  a  gentle  as  well  as  a  prayerful 
man.  He  seemed  most  gracious.  They  gave  expression  to  their  warm  apprecia- 
tion for  Father  Downey  as  a  priest  and  a  man.  This  is  to  their  credit,  for  he  is, 
without  doubt,  a  priest  of  eminent  qualities  of  mind  and  heart.  He  is  highly 
respected  and  revered  by  the  non-Catholics  as  well  as  by  the  children  of  the 
Church.  We  felt  in  our  hearts  that  it  would  be  for  the  welfare  of  religion  in 
general,  and  of  St.  Patrick's  congregation  in  particular,  were  Bishop  Janssen  to 
acquiesce  in  our  judgment.  But  German  interests  were  at  stake,  and  how  could 
the  good  bishop  forget  his  plighted  troth?  Many  months  were  allowed  to  pass  to 
give  a  color  of  truth  to  the  plea  that  during  all  these  weary  months  his  lordship 
was  wrestling  in  prayer  for  divine  light.  0,  religion,  how  many  sins  are  committed 
in  thy  name? 

At  last  came  the  not  unusual  pronouncement  that  a  German  priest  would 
preside  over  the  Irish  congregation  of  St.  Patrick's.  Our  people,  stung  to  the 
quick  by  this  contemptuous  treatment,  and  boiling  over  with  indignation  at  such 
treachery  and  deception,  beoame  awakened  to  the  situation.  They  said  our  bishop 
has  proven  false  to  us.  He  has  scandalized  us  by  revealing,  in  so  palpable  a  man- 
ner, his  nationalistic  prejudices.  He  insults  our  intelligence  by  assuming  to  be  the 
shepherd  of  our  souls,  who  sacrifices  us  at  the  altar  of  German  propagandism. 
Our  request,  conveyed  in  the  most  respectful  manner,  and  along  the  lines  of  right 
and  equity,  he  rejects  with  seeming  scorn.  Instead  of  cementing  the  two  people 
in  unity,  this  unwise  bishop  labors  to  divide  them,  and  to  sow  the  seeds  of  mutual 
contempt  by  ignoring  upon  all  occasions  the  rights  and  claims  of  the  one,  and 
pandering  to  the  selfish  interests  of  the  other.  We,  therefore,  resolved  to  resist 
with  all  our  might,  this  outrageous  action  of  our  bishop.  We  resolved  that  Rev. 
Mr.  Cluse  especially,  should  not  be  our  pastor.  We  were  reminded  of  the  scandal 
that  would  be  given  by  our  resistance  to  authority.  We  answered  that  we  were 
within  our  rights,  and  that,  therefore,  the  bishop  would  be  the  cause  of  the  scandal 
given.  We  were  told  that  authority  must  be  maintained,  but  our  own  good  sense 
and  Catholic  instincts  tell  us  that  ecclesiastical  authority  is  something  divine — a 
power  unto  edification — and  that  the  blind  absolutism  of  this  bishop  is  the  ema- 
nation of  everything  low  and  vulgar.  If  we  had  the  least  ground  for  belief  that 
his  rulings  were  guided  by  the  holy  spirit,  our  Catholic  faith  would  dictate  a  willing 
obedience  thereto.  "He  that  resisteth  the  power  resisteth  the  ordinance  of  God." 
But  what  of  a  man  who  abuses  power,  of  a  simoniacal  spirit  who  looks  upon  the 
parishes  at  his  disposal,  not  as  spiritual  vineyards,  but  as  so  many  fat  livings  to 
be  dispensed  among  his  favorites.  Is  resisting  such  a  one  a  resistance  against  the 
ordinance  of  God?  God  forbid.  Aye,  blessed  are  they  who  raise  their  voices 
against  such  evil-doers  within  the  Church  of  God.     When  a  mitred  bishop  of  the 


W      Toron 


26 


p  of  Belh  ville,  Illinois,  vs. 


holy  Catholic  Church  will  desc<  leceil  and  subterfuge  to  the  detriment  of  his 

people  it  is  enough  to  make  angele  weep,  and  weak  mortals  to  doubt  the  promises 
of  Christ  to  his  divine  BDOU 

We  are  nol  only  unconscious  of  evil,  hut  we  know  and  we  believe  that  we  are 

< tending  in  the  cause  <>i  truth  and  justice.     If  the  one  appointed  to  teach  and 

guide  us  fails  in  bis  duty  towards  us.  it  is  our.-  to  complain  of  his  abuses  and  to 
-t  the  baneful  influences  of  ecclesiastical  corruption  caused  by  his  official  in- 
capacity. 

We  personally  are  now  inured  to  Bcandals.  We  have  been  long  at  such  a 
school  at  this  side  of  the  river.  Thanks  to  God,  we  are  still  in  the  faith,  and  we 
hope  t<>  persevere  therein  unto  the  end.     Bui  what  of  the  future  generation? 

••  Ave.  then   -  the  rub." 

Would  we  be  true  men,  true  fathers  of  families,  true  Christians,  if  we  would 
lay  Bupinely  and  tolerate  evils  that  would  lead  to  the  destruction  of  faith  and 
morals  among  our  children?  We  would  be  worse  than  infidels  were  we  to  permit 
this. 

We  insisl  upon  having  for  our  pastor  a  representative  priest.  A  well  known 
Catholic  writer  says:  "The  Church  in  this  country  needs  representative  men,  and 
clergy  and  laity  should  insist  on  getting  them."  This  is  our  contention.  It  is 
comforting  to  know  that  bishops  and  archbishops,  and  other  learned  ecclesiastics 
are  with  as,  heart  and  soul.  Never  will  we  yield.  We  will  teach  the  weak  a 
lesson  in  nobility  of  purpose  and  in  self-sacrifice  in  the  cause  of  truth  and  justice. 


MR.  JOHN   RALEIGH. 

Mr.  Raleigh  is  a  prosperous  young  business  man  of  East  St.  Louis   and  was 
one  of  the  foremost  defenders  of  the  rights  of  the  people. 


Toronto 


MR    DANiEL  O'BRIEN. 

(NO  SURRENDER.) 

Mr   O'Brien,  as  his  picture  would   indicate,  is  cool,  calculating  and  determined 

careful  and  slow  to  decide,  but  when  he  reaches  a  decision  then  "no  surrender 

is  his  motto      When  the  order  of  excommunication  was  issued  and  some  few 

were  inclined  to  yield,  then  it  was  that  his  true  character  manifested  itself 

The  words  he  uttered  at  that  meeting,  "no  surrender  or  compromise,  '  will 

never  be  forgotten  by  those  present.     Ireland  and  St.  Patrick's  parish 

has  many  young  men  to  be  proud  of,  but  none  more  than  Dan  O'Brien. 


St.  Pat  rich's  Pari*}),   East  St.   Louis,  Illinois.  27 


"ROMAN  LEGISLATION   IS  TRADITIONALLY 
FOUNDED  ON   NATURAL  EQUITY." 


The  enemies  of  the  Church  have  been  presenting  her  to  the  world  as  an  autoc- 
racy or  an  ecclesiastical  dictatorship  ;  and  yet  nothing  could  be  farther  from  the  truth. 
Cardinal  Bellarmine,  one  of  the  greatest  theologians  of  the  Church,  declares  that 
"all  Catholic  doctors  agree  that  the  government  of  the  Church,  deposited  by  God  in 
the  hands  of  men,  is  limited  and  moderated  by  democracy." — (Lib.  I.  C.  V.) 

"A  bishop  is  truly  set  to  govern  the  portion  of  the  flock  of  Jesus  Christ 
assigned  to  him  in  his  diocese,  and  special  graces  are  undoubtedly  annexed  to  his 
appointment  by  the  Chief  Shepherd  as  well  as  to  the  episcopal  character  received 
in  Holy  Orders.  However,  his  authority  is  not  by  any  means  of  an  unlimited 
character;  it  is  hedged  in  by  the  natural  law  of  equity  and  justice,  by  the  divine 
positive  law  and  by  the  Canon  Law  of  the  Church." — (Dr.  Burtsell.) 

The  principle  laid  down  by  Pope  Celestine  I.  in  the  early  part  of  the  fifth 
century,  "Xullus  invitis  detur  episcopus"  (no  bishop  should  be  placed  over  people 
against  their  will),  has  long  been  recognized  in  the  Church  as  applying  to  the  elec- 
tion of  popes,  bishops  and  priests.  Take  the  election  of  St.  Martin  of  Tours: 
"From  the  surrounding  country  and  neighboring  villages  the  crowds  thronged  into 
the  city.  All  wanted  Martin  for  bishop.  The  electors  at  first  resisted  the  popular 
outcry  *  *  *  but  the  people  complain  and  murmur,  and  their  faith  sustains  and 
nurtures  their  discontent;  they  implore  and  threaten,  and,  disregarding  their  ordi- 
nary representatives,  they  join  issue  with  the  electors,  and  finally  the  bishops 
vield  and  accept  the  people's  choice." — (Cath.  Quart.  Review,  Jan.,  1896.  p.  91.) 

The  bishops  of  that  period,  knowing  that  from  apostolic  times  the  people 
exercised  a  deliberative  influence,  a  sort  of  suffrage  in  the  nomination  of  bishops, 
did  not  dare  to  pronounce  a  wholesale  excommunication  against  their  lay  opponents. 
There  were  no  German  bishops  in  those  days. 

Leo  the  Great  found  it  necessary  to  reprove  the  bishops  of  the  Province  of 
Vienna  for  nominations  of  prelates  who  were  odious  to  the  people,  and  who  could 
onlv  be  put  in  possession  of  their  sees  by  military  intervention.  These  abuses 
have  lasted  too  long  already,  says  the  Pope ;  let  the  people  express  their  wishes ; 
they  will  quietly  make  known  their  candidates,  and  then  you  may  see  how  far  you 
satisfy  them,  or  what  prevents  you  from  accepting  their  choice. — (Cat],.  Quart. 
Jan.,  1896,  p.  87.) 


28  The  Hishop  of  Belleville,  Illinois,  vs. 

Among  the  clergy  of  the  country,  who  openly  criticized  Bishop  Janssen  and 
sympathized  with  the  parishioners  of  St.  Patrick's,  was  the  Rev.  Francis  Kielty, 
the  venerable  and  learned  rector  of  the  Holy  Angels'  Church,  St.  Louis. 

The  learned  Father  addressed  the  following  letter  to  Bishop  Janssen  with  the 
hope  of  putting  an  end  to  the  unhappy  conflict: 

St.  Louis,  May  29,  1899. 
Bishop  Janssen,  Belle  rill,  Illinois: 

Dear  Bishop — Proprio  motu,  I  send  you  this  friendly  suggestion:  I  see  from 
the  morning  papers  that  no  satisfactory  conclusion  has  been  reached  between  you 
and  the  trustees.  There  are  two  proverbs  which  say,  "Past  counsel,  past  grace," 
and  "It  is  the  part  of  a  wise  man  sometimes  to  change;  but  a  fool  never."  Do 
please  try  and  let  not  these  find  any  application  in  you  on  the  present  sad  occasion. 

Fleury  says,  "Such  heed  was  paid  to  the  assent  of  the  people  in  the  first  six 
ages  of  the  Church  that  if  they  refused  to  accept  a  bishop,  even  after  his  consecra- 
tion, they  were  not  constrained,  and  another  more  acceptable  was  provided." 
— Disc.  I,  sec.  4.  St.  Augustine  gives  the  reason  addressed  in  these  words  to  his 
people,  "We  are  Christians  for  our  own  sakes;   Bishops  for  yours." — Ser.  359. 

Now,  here  is  my  friendly  suggestion:  Have  Father  Cluse  to  now  decline  the 
place  on  the  ground  of  their  great  dislike  to  him  and  appoint  Father  Downey 
administrator  indefinitely.  In  your  doing  this  you  will  put  a  stop  to  the  already 
terrible  scandal.  By  acting  thus  you  will  uphold  your  authority.  This  course  of 
action  will  neither  lower,  weaken  or  dishonor  the  episcopal  dignity.  On  the  con- 
trary, it  will  greatly  elevate  it  before  the  religious  and  non-religious  worlds. 

We  depend  on  the  people  not  only  for  our  own  support,  but  also  for  the 
accomplishment  of  those  works  that  develop  the  action  of  the  Church.  In  other 
countries  the  clergy  calculate  on  the  benefactions  of  a  rich  and  generous  aristocracy. 
In  this,  our  reliance  is  on  the  people  properly  so  called.  We  cannot,  therefore, 
afford  to  alienate  their  affections.  If  we  do  so,  they  may  not  only  withdraw  their 
support  from  the  Church,  but  they  may  league  themselves  with  our  natural  enemies. 

Take  down  your  books,  my  dear  Bishop,  and  read  there  of  the  terrible  and 
interminable  scandals  caused  by  trustees  in  New  York  and  Philadelphia.  What 
has  happened  may  happen  again.  You  are  familiar  with  the  language  of  our  Divine 
Lord  :     "Vae  homini  illi  per  quern  scandalum  venit."* 

Totus  Tuus  in  Domino.  F.  M.  Kielty. 

It  was  represented  to  Archbishop  Martinelli  by  the  authorities  at  Belleville 
that  the  contention  of  the  people  was  that  no  appointee  to  succeed  the  deceased 
pastor  would  be  received  except  Father  Downey ;  that  not  even  Fathers  Sweeny, 
Gough  or  Harkins  would  be  permitted  to  exercise  priestly  functions  in  St.  Patrick's 


"Woe  to  him  by  whom  scandal  eometh. 


MR.   DENNIS  MCCARTHY. 

Mr.   Dennis  McCarthy,  whose  letters   during  the   controversy   attracted   wide 
attention,  is  so  well  and  favorably  known,  and  his  ability  so  universally 
recognized  that  he  needs  no  special   praise.      He  played 
his  part  in  the  great  drama  to  the  entire  satis- 
faction of  those  most  keenly  inteiested. 


MR    WALTER  J.  COONAN. 

Mi   Coonan,  while  yet  a  young  man,  has  reached  quite  a  prominent  position  in 

the  business  community  in  East  St.  Louis.   He  conducts  an  elegant  hotel  where 

the  boys  congregate  to  consult  on  important  matters.     Mr.  Coonan  was 

one  of  the  main  supporters  of  the  people's  cause,  and  his  business  was 

never  too  pressing,  or  the  night  too  dark  or  too  coid,  to  cause  him  to 

miss  a  single  opportunity  to   perfect   plans  for  its  final  triumph. 

Young  Walter  will  do  to  tie  to  ;   he  is  ali  wool   and  yard  wide. 


67.  Patrick'*  Parish,  East  St.  Louis,  Illinois.  29 

Church.  This  was,  of  course,  a  malicious  fabrication,  yet  it  led  the  Papal  Delegate 
to  write  to  the  committee  counseling  submission  to  the  wishes  of  their  bishop.  To 
this  the  paiishioners  publicly  replied  that  at  no  time  did  they  contend  that  it  was 
their  right  to  have  a  voice  in  the  selection  of  the  individual  who  should  be  their 
priest.  They  claimed  and  asserted  the  right  of  petition  for  the  appointment  of  the 
priest  of  their  choice,  but  the  petition  for  the  appointment  of  Father  Downey  was 
in  the  nature  of  a  respectful  request,  while  the  petition  for  the  appointment  of  an 
Irish  priest  was  an  imperative  demand.  On  the  same  occasion  they  expressed  in 
a  most  happy  manner  their  true  position  in  reference  to  Church  authority.  "We 
do  not  wish  to  assert,  said  they,  that  we  have  a  right  to  govern  instead  of  being 
governed." 

Another  prominent  member  of  the  congregation  voiced  the  sentiment  of  his 
companions  in  a  public  interview.  "We  respect  the  bishop,  said  he,  and  acknowl- 
edge his  authority,  but  his  action  in  this  case  is  going  beyond  his  authority,  an 
overreaching  of  it  which  does  not  bind  us  and  to  which  we  will  not  submit.  We 
know  our  rights,  and  we  propose  to  maintain  them.  We  have  been  abused  and 
denounced  by  the  supporters  of  the  bishop  and  some  of  his  advisers,  but  that  has 
made  us  more  determined." 

From  the  beginning  of  the  contest  Father  Phelan  became  enlisted  in  the  cause 
of  the  parishioners.  "The  position  of  Bishop  Janssen  is  contrary  to  the  policy  of 
the  Pope,"  declared  Father  Phelan  in  a  public  interview  which  appeared  in  the 
columns  of  the  Globe-Democrat,  "The  attempt  to  place  a  German  rector  in  charge 
jf  St.  Patrick's  has  brought  about  a  national  issue  in  which  the  parish  is  uphold- 
ing the  policy  of  the  Church. 

"How  thoroughly  the  diocese  of  Belleville  has  been  made  German  will  be 
understood  by  a  glance  at  the  nationality  of  the  priests  there.  Out  of  a  total  of 
ninety-eight  there  are  but  seven  who  are  not  Germans.  This  is  out  of  all  propor- 
tion to  the  number  of  Germans  in  the  diocese,  who  are  certainly  not  in  excess  of 
one-half.  The  German  priests  are  members  of  the  Priester  Verein,  an  organization 
which  is  national  in  character.  This  policy  is  contrary  to  that  of  the  American 
Catholic  Church.  Of  course  it  cannot  and  will  not  be  successful.  The  Church  in 
this  country  will  always  be  American  and  will  become  more  and  more  so  as  time 
goes  on. 


30  Th  ■   Tilt       •  vs. 

"When  tl  e  opposition  first  manifested  itself,  priests  near  the  bishop  attempted 
to  stamp  it  out  by  abuse  and  intimidation.  Letters  were  written  and  published  by 
friends  of  the  bishop,  cruelly  maligning  the  character  of  Father  O'Halloran,  and 
thelri-hi  Belleville.     The  writer  said  much  and  hinted  at 

...     That  raising  of  the  nationalistic  black  flag;  and  from  that  moment 

the  cause  of  tl  -      Patrick's  parish  became  the  cause  of  Irishmen, 

lav  and  cleric,  everywhere.  Now  compromise  is  impossible  and  undesirable.  The 
bishop  should  ha  nded  the  memory  of  Father  O'Halloran  when  assailed  by 

priests  of  his  own  household.  He  should  have  remembered  the  sad  night  when  he 
and  the  editor  of  this  paper  met  in  the  sick  room  of  the  dying  rector  of  St.  Patrick's. 
Tin-  grand  old  Father  O'Halloran  had  scarcely  strength  to  sit,  but  he  rose  and 
advancing  to  where  the  bishop  and  we  sat,  he  raised  his  arm  and  with  big  tears 
streaming  down  his  cheeks,  said  :  'If  I  must  die,  God's  will  be  done  ;  but  I  have 
this  supreme  consolation:  I  have  done  my  duty.'  We  were  thrilled  and  the  good 
bishop  was  thrilled  at  the  dramatic  manner  of  the  man.  It  was  the  noble  avowal 
of  St.  Paul  over  again:  T  have  fought  the  good  fight.'  Why  permit  ghouls  to 
desecrate  his  grave?  The  man  who  slandered  the  cherished  dead  will  have  leisure 
to  regret  it. 

"The  organ  of  Bishop  Janssen,  the  'Herold  des  Glaubens,'  has  not  ceased  a 
Bingle  week  assailing  the  people  of  St.  Patrick's  parish,  calling  them  the  vilest 
names  in  the  rich  vocabulary  of  German  vituperation.  We  warned  it  repeatedly 
to  desist;  but  it  seemed  only  to  add  fuel  to  the  nationalistic  flame.  The  upshot  of 
the  whole  matter  is  now  an  ecclesiastical  cul  de  sac.  The  bishop  must  yield  or 
thousands  of  souls  will  be  lost.  It  will  be  a  hard  blow  to  episcopal  authority;  but 
bishops  should  be  wise,  and  remember  that  only  madmen  challenge  the  lightning. 
We  see  only  two  ways  out  of  the  difficulty.  Let  Father  Cluse  withdraw;  or  for 
the  sake  of  the  little  ones  of  Christ,  let  the  bishop  yield." 

Father  Phelan  thus  referred  to  this  question  in  the  columns  of  The  Western 

hman. 

A  very  unfortunate  difference  between  the  congregation  of  St.  Patrick's  Church, 
East  St.  Louis,  and  their  Pish..],  is  giving  a  good  deal  of  uneasiness  to  the  friends 
of  religion  in  and  out  of  the  diocese  of  Belleville.  The  congregation  is  large  and 
influential,  and  for  forty  years  has  been  one  of  the  most  zealous  and  edifying  in 
the  Province  of  St.  Louis  and  of  Chicago.  They  have  amassed  a  valuable  property 
m  church,  schools,  convent  and  preshytery  and  have  about  finished  paying  for 


MR.   P.  J.  GAINER. 

Mr.  Gainer  is  one  of  the  most  extensive  general  contractors  in  the  West.    His  money 

and  influence  were  thrown  on  the  people's  side  in  this  fight.     The  truth  of  the 

old  adage,  that  one  touch  of  nature  makes  the  whole  world  akin,  was  never 

better  exemplified  than  in  this  never-to-be-forgotten   battle.     The  rich  and 

poor,  old  and  young,  professor  and  scholars,  yes,  and   men   and  women 

too  who  were  unfriendly  for  years,  all  came  forward  at  the  cry  of  alarm 

and  joined   hands  in  the  battle  royal  for  the  purity  and  sanctity  of 

their  homes.     It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  friendship  thus  cemented 

will   never  be  broken,  and  that  the    members  of  St.   Patrick's 

parish  will   always  remain  an  united  and   harmonious  family. 


loron 


MR    P.   P.  SULLIVAN. 

There  were  many  Sullivans  engaged   in  this  noted  controveisy,  but  none  who 

rendered  greater  service  than  the  subject  of  this  sketch,  Mr.  P.  P.  Sullivan. 

He  was  called  to  Ireland  on  a  special  financial  mission  before  the 

controversy  ended,  and  his  parting  injunction  to  his  friends 

as  they  assembled  at  the  Relay  depot  to  bid   him 

adieu,  was,  "Never  yield.     You  must  have  an 

Irish  priest  to  greet  me  when  I  return 


St.  Patrick's  Parish,  East  St.  Louis,  Illinois.  31 

them  for  the  third  time.  For  a  long  time  they  were  the  only  congregation  in  East 
St.  Louis.  When  the  Germans  became  numerous  enough  to  support  a  priest  of 
their  own  one  was  sent  them,  and  for  a  quarter  of  a  century  a  wholesome  rivalry 
stimulated  both  parishes  to  generous  and  persistent  endeavor.  While  the  parish 
of  St.  Henry's  became  the  most  intensely  German  in  America,  St.  Patrick's 
became  as  thoroughly  Irish.  The  rector  of  St.  Henry's  is  one  of  the  recognized 
leaders  in  ever}'  German  movement;  the  rector  of  St.  Patrick's  was  accorded 
leadership  in  every  Irish  and  Irish-American  enterprise.  While  the  eagles  of 
Prussia  on  national  holidays  floated  over  the  parish  of  St.  Henry's,  the  green 
banner  of  Ireland  was  thrown  to  the  breeze  from  the  towers  and  steeple  of 
St.  Patrick's.  While  there  was  rivalry,  there  was  no  shadow  of  unfriendliness, 
until  the  other  day  Bishop  Janssen  appointed  a  German  priest  rector  of  St.  Patrick's. 
The  congregation  said  no,  with  a  mighty  "o"  that  made  the  walls  of  old 
St.  Patrick's  shake.  The  Bishop  said  "yah"  with  a  thundering  big  "a"  that 
sounded  like  a  fulmination  from  the  Vatican  itself.  A  merry  war  of  vocables  is 
going  on  ever  since  and  no  one  can  forsee  the  end. 

Bishop  Janssen  is  a  good  and  holy  bishop.  He  is  known  in  this  diocese  as 
well  as  he  is  in  his  own.  No  one  that  knows  him  will  accuse  him  of  any  conscious 
national  bias  in  his  late  appointment  to  St.  Patrick's.  His  letter  to  the  Irish 
people  of  East  St.  Louis  was  the  message  of  a  father,  and  his  words  were  warm 
and  fresh  from  communion  with  God  in  prayer.  We  admired  and  pitied  him. 
He  had  committed  a  terrible  blunder  of  judgment.  If  a  bishop  were  to  appoint  a 
superior  over  a  religious  community  as  distasteful  to  its  members  as  is  the  appoint- 
ment of  Father  Cluse  to  St.  Patrick's,  he  would  be  guilty  of  a  crime.  The  bishop 
has  allowed  his  diocese  to  become  monstrously  jughandled  nationally.  It  may 
not  have  been  his  fault;  but  with  the  example  of  the  ordinary  of  Milwaukee  before 
their  eyes,  we  think  he  cannot  escape  conviction  at  the  hands  of  the  American 
public.  When  he  came  to  the  diocese  Father  O'Halloran  was  a  rural  dean  and 
the  only  priest  holding  official  position  in  the  diocese  of  Belleville.  Almost  the 
first  act  of  the  Bishop  was  to  take  away  the  pitiful  stripes  Bishop  Baltes  had  given 
good  Father  O'Halloran,  and  by  another  stroke  of  the  pen  he  made  a  German 
his  vicar-general.  He  had  the  right  to  do  both  the  one  and  the  other;  but  it  was 
small  and  squinted  at  nationalism.  Then  he  became  identified  with  the  Priester- 
Verein  and  allowed  himself  to  be  pushed  to  the  front  in  all  the  offensive  efforts  of 
that  body  to  wring  from  Rome  recognition  in  the  hierarchy.  He  had  a  right  to  do 
the  one  and  permit  the  other;  but  it  looked  bad  in  a  bishop  governing  a  diocese 
nearly  one-half  non-German.  After  eleven  }^ears  he  has  just  the  same  number  of 
priests  he  received  from  his  predecessor.  It  was  his  duty  to  provide  priests  for  his 
diocese ;  and  prudence  should  have  dictated  that  he  provide  English-speaking  as 
well  as  German-speaking  priests.  He  says  he  needed  in  nearly  all  of  the  missions 
priests  who  could  speak  both  languages ;  and  we  shall  not  dispute  his  statement, 
beyond  saying  that  there  was  no  need  of  both  languages  in  St.  Patrick's,  East  St. 
Louis.  English  is  the  language  of  this  country,  and  should  be  the  language  of  the 
diocese  of  Belleville. 

But  the  Bishop  has  appointed  a  German  priest  to  St.  Patrick's  parish  and  the 
serious  question  arises  now,  how  to  rectify  the  mistake  without  damaging  episcopal 


* 


Th  '■'■     ■  ville,  Illinois,  vs. 


authority.  rts  on  episcopal  authority.     Destroy  it  and  you  have 

u-,  3ted   in   the   maintenance  of  episcopal  authority 

lh.(|1  u,  itrick's  or  any  or  all  other  parishes  in  the 

He.     For  I  ■  of  religion  and  to  avoid  what  may  prove  the 

dition  the  American  Church  has  known  since  the  Hogan  schism 

jn  pbiladelphi  both  parti-  .roe  on  Archbishop  Kain  as  an  arbitrator. 

I[,  .,,  by  birth.     He  certainly  lias  given  the  Germans  ample  proof 

nf  ]  West.    This  is  an  age  of  conciliation.     Let  both 

to  this  •  Louis  emeute  agree  to  refer  their  difference  to  the  Metro- 

polii  and  the  whole  question  can  be  settled  in  a  week.     What  say 

y«>u,  gentlemen? 

The  effort  to  bring  about  peace  made  by  Archbishop  Martinelli,  in  counseling 

submission   to   the   bishop,   encouraged   Bishop  Janssen  to  inveigh   against  the 

Uioua   (?)  members  of   St.  Patrick's  Church;     hence    appeared   in   glaring 

Mines:     "A    letter   from  Bishop  Janssen!     Threatens  rebellious  flock   with 

excommunication!     All  opposition  must  cease!     Father  Cluse  must  be  accepted 

at  St.  Patrick's!" 

The  text  of  the  letter  is  as  follows: 


/'     thinners  of  St.  Patrick's  Churchy  East  St.  Louis: 

Mv  Dear  Children  : — To  my  sincerest  grief,  to  the  most  deplorable  detriment 
of  immortal  ><>uis,  to  the  utmost  scandal  and  scorn  of  our  Holy  Catholic  religion, 
the  open  rebellion  originated  in  your  midst  against  the  lawful  ecclesiastical  author- 
ity La  contumaciously  upheld. 

The  representation  of  our  Holy  Father,  the  Pope,  the  Most  Reverend  Archbishop 
tstian  Martinelli,  Apostolic  Delegate  at  Washington,  has  most  affectionately 
entreated  all  the  leaders  and  abettors  of  the  rebellion  to  return  to  their  better  senses 
and  yield  to  the  wishes  of  their  bishop,  but  so  far  this  fatherly  advice  has  not  been 
followed.  Now,  once  more,  I  warn  and  beg  the  rebellious  members  of  St.  Patrick's 
Church,  Bast  St.  Louis,  to  consider  their  own  welfare,  and  to  submit  to  lawful 
ecclesiastical  authority.*  From  all  my  heart  I  entreat  you  to  spare  me  the  painful 
necessity  of  inflicting  on  the  guilty  ones  the  severe  punishment  of  the  Church. 

John  Janssen, 
Given  at  Belleville,  111.,  July  22,  1899.  Bishop  of  Belleville. 


'"It  istheold  tale,  submission,  submission,  submission,  till  we  have  lost  heart  and  hope,  and 

ompelled,  in  utter  despair,  to  let  things  have  their  own  way,  and  we  become,  perhaps,  like 

a  large  number  of  the  Catholics  of  South  America  and  Latin  Europe,  a  very  reproach  to  mother 

Church.     Give  the  Church  perfect  freedom  in  carrying  out  her  laws,  that  she  may  ascertain  and 

'  the  men  that  have  not  only  the  respect,  but  the  confidence  and  affection  of  their  flocks." 

—("The  Bishop  and  the  Priest,"  p.  72.) 


St.  Patrick's  Parish,  East  St.  Louis,  Illinois.  33 

When  Archbishop  Martinelli's  letter  was  read  at  a  public  meeting  of  the 
parishioners,  it  was  received  with  respect,  but  failed  to  alter  the  determination  of 
the  people.     Their  action  on  the  matter  is  thus  referred  to  in  the  public  press : 

"More  than  300  parishioners  of  St.  Patrick's  Church  met  in  the  School  Hall, 
in  East  St.  Louis,  last  night,  to  take  formal  action  as  to  the  contents  of  Mgr. 
Martinelli's  recent  letter  concerning  the  church  imbroglio. 

Patrick  Wallace  was  chairman  of  the  meeting  and  Richard  Nash  secretary. 

There  were  several  speeches  commendatory  of  the  spirit  of  the  Martinelli 
message,  but  it  was  the  sentiment  of  the  participants  in  the  meeting  that  the 
opposition  to  Father  Cluse  as  pastor  be  strenuously  maintained.  It  was  ordered 
that  each  relay  of  guards  at  the  church  be  increased  from  six  to  ten,  and  a  com- 
mittee was  appointed  to  draft  a  reply  to  Mgr.  Martinelli's  letter. 

"We  have  the  profoundest  respect  for  the  papal  delegate,"  said  a  represen- 
tative of  the  meeting,  "and  for  his  views  as  expressed  in  the  message  to  us,  but 
the  church  troubles  in  East  St.  Louis  will  never  be  settled  until  the  bishop  sends 
an  Irish  or  Irish-American  as  priest  of  St.  Patrick's.  We  believe  that  when  we 
lay  our  side  of  the  case  in  detail  before  Mgr.  Martinelli,  or  his  successor,  it  will 
result  in  the  attainment  of  the  object  for  which  we  are  striving,  but  in  any  event  we 
will  never  yield  an  inch  from  the  sentiment  formally  expressed  at  the  Music  Hall 
meeting,  which  is,  as  we  have  so  many  times  repeated  through  the  press,  that  we 
will  not  accept  a  German  priest  as  our  pastor." 

The  committee  decided  to  prepare  a  reply  to  be  forwarded  at  once  to  Mgr. 
Martinelli. 

The  bishop's  threats  of  excommunication  provoked  much  comment.  Bishops 
and  priests  waited  with  anxiety  to  see  if  Bishop  Janssen  would  cap  the  climax  of 
his  folly  by  pronouncing  a  wholesale  excommunication  against,  to  say  the  least, 
ten  thousand  Catholics.  To  avert  so  great  a  scandal  and  calamity,  the  people 
resolved  to  appeal  from  Bishop  Janssen  misinformed  to  Bishop  Janssen  better 
informed,  hence  the  following  communication  which  appeared  in  the  public  press 
with  some  introductory  remarks : 

"In  reply  to  Bishop  Janssen's  threat  of  excommunication  and  in  defense  of 
their  action  in  opposing  the  appointment  of  Father  Cluse,  a  letter  was  written  in 
East  St.  Louis,  and,  after  being  indorsed  by  a  number  of  prominent  parishioners, 


'lie,  Illinois,  vs. 

ml  committee  having  in  charge  the  protest  against  Father 

orwarded  to  the  Bish 

nighi  i.  of  the  parishioners,  the  letter  was  read  in  the  shape 

|0pt(  .1  unanimously  amid  cheering  and  hand-clapping. 

Mowing  day  at  noon  the  m  rs  of  the  parish  who  were  opposed  to 

lerCluse,  gathered  on  the  church  steps  in  front  of  the  edifice.     The  church 

i,  the  flag  was  run  up  to  half  mast  and  members  of  the  Board  of 

Tru  ik  up  a  collection  of  5  cents  from  each  person. 

Tli  me  of  open  defiance  to  the  bishop,  who  threatened  excommunica- 

tion to  all  who  opposed  him  if  they  did  not  obey  his  wishes  by  noon  that  day,  was 
led  '»n  at  a  meeting  of  the  parishioners  held  the  night  previous  in  the  school 
hall.  The  crowd  was  the  largest  ever  brought  together  there.  Several  hundred  who 
were  unable  t » »  get  admission,  stood  outside.  Fully  one-half  of  those  present  were 
women.     Their  enthusiasm  in  the  cause  was  as  great  as  that  of  the  men. 

M.  J.  Walsh  was  selected  to  preside  over  the  meeting.  Patrick  Wallace  was 
the  secretary.     The  purpose  of  the  meeting  was  stated  in  a  few  words. 

Daniel  MeGIynn,  the  City  Attorney,  was  the  first  speaker.  He  was  followed 
by  Professoi  T.  J.  McDonough,  who  read  a  copy  of  the  letter  sent  to  the  bishop 
in  the  morning.  A  motion  was  made,  seconded,  and  passed  to  take  the  letter  as 
a  resolution  and  to  adopt  it.  Feeling  was  intense  at  the  unanimous  adoption  of 
the  letter.  Women  waved  their  handkerchiefs  and  men  rose,  shouted  and  twirled 
their  hats.  After  order  had  been  restored  speeches  were  made  by  Thomas  Hayes, 
,hrry  .1 .  Kane,  Dennis  McCarthy  and  others. 

The  letter,  which  was  forwarded  to  the  bishop,  is  as  follows: 

East  St.  Louis,  Aug.  7,  1899. 
Rig1>'   !:  d  John  Janssen,  Bishop  of  Belleville: 

Yoi  i;  Lordship— I  have  read  your  letter  addressed  to  the  clergy  and  laity  of 
this  diocese,  in  which  you  threaten  with  excommunication  a  whole  Catholic  con- 
gregation for  daring  to  assert  and  maintain  their  rights,  civil  and  ecclesiastical. 

We,  who  realize  that  we  are  entering  on  the  dawn  of  the  twentieth  century 
and  in  a  land  where  the  church  enjoys  a  merited  freedom,  feel  a  keen  sense  of  pain 
that  one  who  styles  himself  a  bishop  of  the  Holy  Roman  Catholic  Church  should 
So  mi-represent  her  spirit  and  misinterpret  her  laws. 

Bow  foreign  to  the  Bpirit  of  an  enlightened  and  prudent  Catholic  bishop  has 
been  your  conduct  in  our  regard.     It  is  you,  Right  Reverend  Sir,  who  is  defying 


MR.  EDWARD  O'BRIEN. 

Mr.  O'Brien  is  another  of  the  rising  generation  of  prosperous  young  business 

men  of  East  St.  Louis,  who,  forgetting  business  for  the  time  being, 

promptly  responded  to  the  people's  cail  and   never  relaxed   his 

efforts  in  their  behalf  until  the  great  battle  was  won. 


MR.   P.  J.  KEELY. 

Mr   Keely  is  one  of  the  rising  young  men  of  East  St.  Louis.     He  was  an  able 

adviser,  and  an  indefatigable  worker  to  render  null  and  void  the  unwarranted 

acts  of  Bishop  Janssen.     He  has  reason  to  be  proud  of  the  victory 


St.  Patrick's  Parish,  East  St.  Louis,  Illinois.  35 

ecclesiastical  laws  by  claiming  the  right  to  do  wrong  in  your  scandalous  attempt  to 
coerce  a  people  to  accept  as  their  pastor  a  man  who  has  already  made  himself 
odious  to  them.  You  are  the  originator  of  all  these  scandals,  and  you  were  fully 
conscious  of  the  results  that  would  arise  from  your  unwarranted  action.  It  is  you 
who  have  displayed  a  culpable  contumacious.ness  on  the  false  principle  that  even 
if  you  have  made  a  mistake  your  authority  must  be  maintained.  You  falsely 
argue  that,  apart  from  the  wisdom  or  unwisdom  of  your  appointment,  things  have 
assumed  such  a  shape  as  to  make  it  impossible  for  you,  in  virtue  of  your  dignity  as 
bishop,  to  recede  from  your  position.  That  you  were  wrong  ab  initio  is  admitted 
by  learned  and  impartial  archbishops,  bishops  and  clergy.  Now,  do  you  hold 
that  good  order  and  discipline  are  served  by  persisting  in  your  error?  But  here  is 
authority  defied,  do  I  hear  you  say?  Authority,  my  dear  bishop,  is  a  power 
intrusted  to  us  to  pronounce  and  execute  justice  and  right.  Therefore,  if  you  are 
wrong  in  the  premises  you  cannot  fall  back  for  support  on  that  much-abused  word 
authority.     Have  you  forgotten  the  lines  of  Butler? 

"Authority  intoxicates, 
And  makes  mere  sots  of  magistrates  ; 
The  fumes  of  it  invade  the  brain, 
And  make  men  giddy,  pi'oud  and  vain  ; 
By  this  the  fool  commands  the  wise, 
The  noble  with  the  base  complies, 
The  sot  assumes  the  rule  of  wit, 
And  cowards  make  the  brave  submit." 

Your  authority  would  command  far  more  respect  by  your  humbly  acknowl- 
edging your  error  and  showing  yourself  a  true  bishop.  The  authority  of  bishops, 
wrote  a  great  church  dignitary,  rests  on  the  union  of  hearts  on  a  holy  unity  of 
thought  and  sentiment  which  secures  to  him  love  and  respect.  Grant  that  the 
Church,  in  her  spirit  of  divine  condescension,  speaks  and  acts  through  you.  Is 
your  decision,  therefore,  infallible,  and  does  your  sentence  of  excommunication 
render  us  guilty  before  God?  It  may  be  well  to  throw  some  theological  light  on  this 
question.  St.  Thomas  says:  "But  in  other  sentences  which  refer  to  particular 
facts,  such  as  questions  about  rights  and  property,  questions  about  crime  and  the 
like,  it  is  possible  for  the  judgment  of  the  Church  to  be  wrong,"  and  Billwart  says : 
"As  to  particular  and  personal  facts  which  depend  only  on  fallible  human  testi- 
mony, and  do  not  appertain  to  the  government  of  the  whole  Church  and  the  salva- 
tion of  all  the  faithful,  it  is  the  common  opinion  that  the  judgment  of  the  Church 
can  be  wrong."  An  Irish  degenerate  from  Belleville  has  attempted  to  come  to 
your  rescue  by  misquoting  St.  Augustine,  whom  he  has  never  read.  He  wound 
up  a  rejoinder  to  Doctor  Stack  by  this  hackneyed  quotation:  Roma  locuta  est; 
causa  finita  est  (Rome  has  spoken,  the  cause  is  ended),  intending  to  convey  to 
his  unsuspecting  readers  that  the  infallible  voice  of  the  Church  had  pronounced 
judgment  against  us.  Beware,  my  dear  bishop,  of  erratic  counselors.  Cardinal 
Newman  tells  us :  "I  do  not  contend  that  popes  at  all  times  have  understood  our 
own  people,  our  national  character  and  resources ;  or  that  they  have  never  suffered 
from  bad  counselors  or  misinformation."     Again,  the  great  Cardinal  says:    "A 


36 


B    '">}>  of  Belleville,  Illinois,  vs. 


Pope  is  not  infallible  in  his  laws,  nor  in  hie  commands,  nor  in  his  public  policy." 
If  this  1"-  so,  bo\i    can  your  lordship  claim  inerrancy  of  judgment,  and  that  your 
irreformal 

Take  I  ath  chapter  of  St.  Matthew,  from  which  you  quote  in  reference 

authority:  "At  that  hour  the  disciples  came  to  Jesus,  saying:  Who 
thinkest  thou  is  the  greater  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven?  And  Jesus,  calling  unto 
him  a  Hit!.'  child,  sel  him  in  the  midst  of  them,  and  said:  Amen;  I  say  unto 
you,  unless  you  become  converted  and  become  as  little  children,  you  shall  not 
enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  Whosoever,  therefore,  shall  humble  himself 
as  this  little  child,  he  is  greater  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  And  he  thatshall  receive 
one  little  child  in  my  name  receiveth  me.  But  he  that  shall  scandalize  one  of 
these  little  one.-  that  believe  in  me,  it  were  better  a  millstone  should  be  hanged 
neck,  and  that  he  be  drowned  in  the  depth  of  the  sea.  Woe  to  the 
world  <»n  account  of  scandals.     Woe  to  that  man  by  whom  the  scandal  cometh." 

This  portion  of  the  chapter  is  more  applicable  to  the  case  than  the  one  you 

ted,  for,  do  you  not  perceive  the  seventeenth  verse  which  you  have  quoted  re- 

to  the  divine  magisterium  of  the  Church  as  the  court  of  last  resort. 

It  must  be  the  Rev.  Mr.  Gough  who  cast  your  letter  into  English,  for  a  careful 
canonist  would  not  use  the  erroneous  and  misleading  words,  "excommunicated 
from  the  Roman  Catholic  Church."  Need  I  remind  your  lordship  that  excommu- 
nication does  not  put  a  person  outside  the  fold  of  the  Church,  nor  does  excom- 
munication deprive  anyone  of  all  privileges.  It  is  a  spiritual  and  medicinal 
punishment,  by  which  baptized  and  contumacious  sinners  are  deprived  of  the  use 
of  the  bona  spiritulia,  which  are  subject  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Church. 

To  excommunicate  a  whole  congregation — aye,  a  whole  city.  This  surely  is 
the  most  unkindest  cut  of  all.  To  use  the  mighty  weapon  of  the  Church  to  enforce 
the  dictates  of  a  clerical  Verein.     Whither  are  we  drifting? 

I  exhort  you.  my  dear  bishop,  to  refrain  from  such  a  rash  act.  Put  away 
pride,  and.  as  our  Lord  recommends,  be  as  a  little  child,  humble,  docile,  guileless. 
Free  yourself  from  the  influence  of  the  Verein.  Be  Catholic  and  not  nationalistic. 
Remember,  you  were  not  consecrated  a  bishop  unto  destruction,  but  unto  edifica- 
tion to  edify  in  charity  those  intrusted  to  your  care.  How  dare  you  address  me 
thus?  do  I  hear  you  say.  There  again  is  your  pride.  Did  not  Peter,  the  chief  of 
the  Apostles,  humbly  permit  Paul  to  chide  him  to  his  face.  You  answer  I  am  not 
Paul,  and  neither  are  you  peter.     Come  now,  remember  the  lines  of  Virgil: 

"Tantaene  animis  celestibus  irae." 

Permit  mo  to  speak  candidly  to  you.  We  appeal  to  your  better  judgment 
and  superior  nature.  Lei  bishop  Janssen  speak  to  us  and  we  will  hear.  We 
refuse  to  deal  with  the  Verein,  clerical  or  secular.  Why  excommunicate  us  for 
this?  And  listen,  has  it  occurred  to  you  that  most  probably  10,000  souls  will 
1  your  terrible  tlncats?  And  then  the  last  state  will  be  worse  than  the 
What  are  you  to  do?  you  ask.  Why,  let  your  love  for  the  salvation 
of  the  souls  be  paramount  to  all  other  interests.  Try  to  realize  the  scandal 
you    have   caused    and    at   once    retrace    your   steps,    meet   the   committee   and 


St.  Patrick's  Parish,  East  St.  Louis,  Illinois.  37 

capitulate  on  honorable  terms.  Give  them  a  representative  priest  who  will 
soon  bring  them  back  your  love  and  friendship.  They  are  a  terrible  people, 
you  say.  Not  at  all,  but  the  grandest  people  in  the  world,  faithful,  generous  and 
devoted.  You  never  knew  them  evidently.  What,  still  murmuring?  It  would  be 
a  bad  precedent  to  establish  in  church  government,  do  I  hear  you  say.  Not  at  all. 
The  extraordinary  sometimes  happens.  Why,  at  one  time  a  clerical  faction  in 
Rome  sought  to  enslave  the  Catholic  Church  in  Ireland  by  making  it  subservient 
to  the  political  interests  of  England.  Cardinal  Quarantotti,  Prefect  of  the  Propa- 
ganda, ordered  the  Irish  clergy  to  submit.  The  Irish  bishops  were  ready  to  do  so 
until  the  people,  led  by  O'Connell,  gave  vent  to  their  indignation.  How  dare 
Quarantotti  dictate  to  the  people  of  Ireland,  said  O'Connell.  The  people  won  and 
brought  a  cardinal  to  his  knees,  mind  you.  Wonder  not  then  at  their  resistance 
to  your  rulings.  You  understood  they  were  always  a  submissive  and  tractable 
people.  Rev.  Mr.  Gough  has  told  you  so,  but  do  not  believe  him.  That  gentle- 
man knows  little  of  the  character  or  genius  of  the  Irish  people.  He  doubtless 
never  read  of  their  spirited  remonstrance  addressed  to  Pope  John  XXII.,  nor  of 
their  contemptuous  repudiation  of  the  Adrian  bull,  nor  again  of  the  Simeoni  cir- 
cular of  recent  times.  The  Irish  have  proven  themselves  a  very  discerning  people. 
Treat  them  with  respect  and  kindness  and  a  more  devoted  people  never  gathered 
round  a  bishop's  chair.  Treat  them  with  scorn  and  contempt  and  the  once  proud 
people  of  Banba  will  resent  an  insult  from  a  Pope. 

Notwithstanding  this  timely  warning,  the  bishop  fulfilled  his  threat  and 
formally  pronounced  excommunication  against  the  parishioners  and  their  sympa- 
thizers.    The  following  is  the  text  of  the  bishop's  letter: 

ALL  WHO  ATTEMPT  TO  PREVENT  FATHER  CLUSE'S  ENTRY  INTO  ST. 
PATRICK'S  RECEIVE  THE  CHURCH'S  SEVEREST  PENALTY. 

Every  member  of  St.  Patrick's  Parish,  East  St.  Louis,  or  subject  of  the 
diocese  of  Belleville,  who.  by  deed  or  word  of  mouth,  shall  prevent  or  attempt  to 
prevent  Father  Cluse's  entry  to  St.  Patrick's  Church  after  noon  next  Wednesday 
will  be  excommunicated.  This  is  a  text  of  a  letter  by  the  bishop,  which  will  be 
read  in  the  Catholic  churches  of  East  St.  Louis  to-day.     The  letter  reads  as  follows : 

Dear  Fathers  and  Beloved  Children  of  the  Laity  of  the  Diocese  of  Belleville : 
Most  of  you  have  heard  of  the  troubles  existing  in  St.  Patrick's  congregation,  East 
St.  Louis. 

The  originators  and  abettors  of  the  open  and  scandalous  rebellion  against  the 
lawful  ecclesiastical  authority  in  St.  Patrick's  congregation,  East  St.  Louis,  are 
contumaciously  persisting  in  their  so  utterly  and  manifestly  unjust,  un-Christian 
and   un-Catholic  proceedings.     They    continue   to    maintain   guards*    about   St. 

*  The  real  motive  of  the  parishioners  in  maintaining  guards  around  the  church  was  a  most 
moral  one.  In  the  first  place,  such  was  the  excitement  and  indignatiou  of  the  people  against  the 
Bishop  of  Belleville  and  his  appointee  for  St.  Patrick's,  that  were  they  to  enter  the  premises 
serious  consequences  could  be  looked  for. 

In  writing  to  the  Most  Rev.  Apostolic  Delegate,  the  parishioners  declared:  "If  we  were  to 
permit  him  to  enter  the  Sanctuary  of  St.  Patrick's  Church,  a  scandal  would  be  sure  to  follow  that 
would  make  its  abettors  shudder." 

Then  some  unscrupulous  enemies  of  the  congregation  might  have  destroyed  the   valuable 
property  and  imputed  the  act  to  the  congregation  and  thus  bring  odium  upon  an  upright  people. 


p  of  11  ,   Tllino 

revent  the  lawful  rector,  the  Very  Reverend 
u-    Cluse,  V.  I  "  the   |  -  iharge  of  hia  sacred  duties  for  the  welfare  of 

l,ig  tl,,  During  many  weeks  they  have  in  great  obstinacy  refused  to  listen  to 

tl,e  ,,,11-    and  threatening  voice   of   the   Church,    whose   Divine 

,-,„,,  |       [  and  Savior,  has  declared:    "If  he  (thy  brother) 

w;i]  n0(  hi  Church,  let  him  be  to  thee  as  a  heathen  and  a  publican."     The 

t;mr  0f  ,,  n,l  Forbearance  is  at  an  end.      As  bishop  of  the  diocese,  I  am 

•  .,(,,1  t',,r  the  cam  for  the  safeguard  of  ecclesiastical  authority, 

1  of  re  recourse  to  the  extreme  measure  of  inflicting  the 

re  punishment  of  the  Church  on  the  guilty  ones. 

It  is,  therefore,  with  a  bleeding  heart,  but  in  fulfillment  of  my  sacred  duty, 
that  I  hereby  publish  the  following  decree:  All  those  members  of  St.  Patrick's 
gation,  Easi  St.  Louis,  iil.,  or  any  other  subjects  of  the  diocese  of  Belleville, 
111.,  who,  after  midday  of  Wednesday  next,  the  ninth  day  of  August,  by  counsel, 
approval  or  deed,  will  abet  the  rebellion  now  existing  in  St.  Patrick's  congregation, 
1  -t  St.  Louis,  111.,  will  help  in  preventing  the  lawful  rector  from  fulfilling  his 
duties  by  officiating  in  St.  Patrick's  Church  and  occupying  the  pastoral  residence 
without  molestation,  shall  by  the  very  fact  of  such  counsel,  approval  or  help  given, 
or  such  deed  performed,  he  excommunicated  from  the  Roman  Catholic  Church. 

A.B  Buch  abettors  shall  be  considered: 

1 .    All  those  who  act  as  committees  formed  for  the  purpose  of  keepmgup  the 

llion. 

1.  All  those  who  by  word  of  mouth,  writing  or  printing,  give  counsel,  or 
approval  or  encouragement  for  the  rebellion. 

3.  All  those  who  attend  meetings  for  the  purpose  of  maintaining  the  rebellion. 

4.  All  those  who  contribute  material  means  for  the  expenses  of  the  rebellion. 

5.  All  those  who  act  as  guards  for  the  premises  of  St.  Patrick's  Church,  to 
keep  away  the  lawful  rector. 

6.  All  those  who  in  any  way  intimidate  others  from  submitting  to  lawful 
ecclesiastical  authority. 

This  communication  has  among  others  the  following  effect. 

1.  A  person  thus  excommunicated  cannot  receive  the  sacraments  of  the 
Church    before   he   or   she    has    repented,    retracted   before   witnesses,  and  been 

Ived  from  the  excommunication  by  the  bishop  of  the  diocese,  or  by  a  priest 
ugnated  by  him. 

2.  The-  excommunicated  person  is  forbidden  to  assist  at  mass  and  other 
public  services  held  in  church  or  chapel,  even  on  Sundays  .  and  holidays  of 
obligation. 

3.  If  a  person  dies  under  the  censure  of  this  excommunication,  he  or  she 
cannot  receive  Christian  burial  and  cannot  be  interred  in  consecrated  ground. 

I  hope  and  pray  that  before  next  Wednesday  the  lawful  rector  be  permitted  to 
take  charge  of  St.  Patrick's  Church  and  parochial  residence.     If  suchshould  not  be 

ase,  [admonish  all  the  faithful  parishioners  of  St.  Patrick's  Church  to  endeavor 
as  best  they  can  to  fulfill  their  duty  by  hearing  mass  on  days  of  obligation  in  some 

hboring  church  or  chapel  until  that  happy  time  returns,  when  mass  again  will 


MR.  JAMES  FRANCIS  MAHER. 

Mr.  James  Francis  Maher,  as  his  name  would  indicate,  was  no  backslider  when 

the  rights  of  his  people  were  threatened.     He  came  from  stock  that 

never  yielded  to  tyranny,  being  a  near  relative  of  that  famous 

champion   of  Irish   liberty — Maher  of  the  Sword. 


MR.  JOHN   HEFFRON. 

If  we  were  called  upon  to  decide  who  rendered  the  most  conspicuous  services  in 

the  controversy  just  ended,  we  would  unhesitatingly  point  to  Mr.  Heffron  as 

being  among  the  few  who  planted  the  first  battery  and  directed  its  fire 

with  unabated  vigor  until  the  white  flag  was  hoisted  by  the  enemy, 

and  ample  reparation  made  for  their  attempted  invasion  of  the 

rights  of  the  people.     From  what  is  said  of  him  by  those 

who  know  him  best,  his  future  seems  bright  indeed. 


St.  Patrick's  Parish,  East  St.  Louis,  Illinois.  39 

be  celebrated  in  their  own  church.  The  Very  Reverend  W.  Cluse,  V.  G.,  rector 
of  St.  Patrick's  Church,  continues  to  reside  at  St.  Mary's  Hospital,  corner  of  Eighth 
street  and  Missouri  avenue,  to  attend  to  the  wants  of  his  parishioners.  I  have 
directed  him  to  perform  baptisms,  marriages  and  funerals  or  other  sacerdotal 
functions,  either  at  the  chapel  of  St.  Mary's  Hospital,  or  in  any  one  of  the  other 
four  churches  in  East  St.  Louis. 

I  implore  on  all  of  you  the  abundance  of  God's  graces. 

Given  at  Belleville,  this  third  day  of  August,  1899. 

John  Janssen,  Bishop  of  Belleville. 

N.  B.  — This  is  to  be  read  in  the  churches  of  the  diocese  next  Sunday. 

If  the  bishop  expected  to  arouse  a  religious  consternation  by  this  mad  act,  he 

soon  became  sorely  disappointed.     On  the  same  day  a  message  came  from 

to  hold  fast  and  to  disregard  the  excommunication.  Later  a  letter  was  received 
by  the  committee  in  which  this  advice  was  repeated,  and  assurance  given  that  the 
bishops  and  priests  of  the  country  would  stand  by  them. 

The  following  is  the  published  account  of  their  Catholic  and  dignified  response 
to  his  ineffectual  maledictions. 

PARISHIONERS  IGNORE  BISHOP  JANSSEN'S  ACTION  AND  SAY  THEIR  PRAYERS 

AS  USUAL.— GREAT  GATHERING  AT  CHURCH.— ATTENDANCE  AT  THE 

MORNING  SERVICE,  THE  LARGEST  ON  RECORD.— LETTERS 

OF  SYflPATHY  FROM  OTHER  PARISHES. 

"Members  of  St.  Patrick's  Church  in  East  St.  Louis  yesterday  ignored  Bishop 
Janssen 's  action  in  excommunicating  them. 

The  largest  crowd  ever  in  attendance  at  a  Sunday  service  gathered  at  the 
church  in  the  morning.  There  was  no  mass  and  no  music  from  the  big  organ.  Priest 
and  choir  also  were  lacking,  but  the  parishioners  who  had  been  excommunicated 
because  they  would  not  accept  Father  Cluse  as  their  pastor,  met  in  the  church  and 
said  their  prayers  just  as  if  they  were  at  peace  with  the  bishop  and  all  the  world. 

Although  cast  off  from  the  church,  (pardon  reporter's  theology)  these  Irish 
people,  fighting  for  what  they  term  their  rights,  devoted  themselves  to  passionate 
prayer,  some  for  an  hour,  and  some  even  a  longer  time. 

Before  and  after  the  prayers  the  members  of  the  church  gathered  in  groups  on 
the  outside  and  in  the  churchyard  and  discussed  the  situation.  Some  had  not 
been  able  to  attend  the  meetings  and  they  spoke  of  the  accounts  in  the  newspapers. 

There  were  few  of  the  members  of  St.  Patrick's  Church  in  attendance  at  the 
services  at  the  other  churches.     Especially  was  this  true  at  St.   Mary's  Church, 


/;  .   Illinois,   vs. 

re  many  ,  m  attencl  e  the  church  to  whirl,  they  belong  has  been 

without  a  Mi' 

ar.ii  there  are  a  number  of  sympathizers  with  St.  Patrick's 

Chu  ,1  the  ban  of  excommunication  placed  on  them  as  sympa- 

thi/,  ,,,  v  Bav  that  they  do  not  believe  thai  it  is  correct,  and  that  they  think 

linsl  the  law,  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  and  therefore  they  will  not 

gubmil  to  it. 

Members  of  the  St.  Patrick's  parish  have  received  letters  from  members  of 
Other  parishes  throughout  Illinois,  and  some  from  even  other  States.  All  these 
letters  advise  the  parishioners  to  stand  up  for  their  rights,  and  not  to  submit  to  the 
bishop's  appointment  of  Father  Cluse  under  any  circumstances.  These  letters 
say  that  the  writers  are  in  perfect  sympathy  with  the  movement  in  St.  Patrick's 
Church   and  they  do  not  fear  excommunication  because  of  the  views  they  hold  on 

this  subject." 

tain  priests  permitted  themselves  to  be  interviewed  on  the  question  of  the 
force  and  meaning  of  the  word  excommunication,  and  its  application  to  the  case, 
said  to  their  credit  that  all  with  one  exception  pronounced  Bishop  Janssen's 
sentence  of  excommunication  undeserved.  The  exception  was  a  German-American 
gfeling  from  St.  Louis  who  knows  as  much  on  the  question  as  he  does  of  esoteric 
Buddhism.  This  theological  tenderfoot  associated  it  with  the  damnation  of  the 
soul.  "The  church  teaches,"  says  this  learned  divine,  "that  to  die  without  its 
blessings  means  the  loss  of  the  soul."  That  the  Archbishop  permits  this  young 
theologue  to  run  at  large  surpasses  comprehension.  Father  Kielty,  whose  letter 
we  publish  elsewhere,  being  interviewed  on  this  question,  gave  out  the  following: 

I  think  the  affair  at  East  St.  Louis  is  a  very  melancholy  one.  The  quarrel, 
of  which  Bishop  Janssen  is  obviously  the  cause,  is  a  great  scandal  in  the  church, 
and  is  in  its  own  way  doing  great  harm,  and  something  should  be  done  to  put  an 
end  to  it.  It  does  more  harm  to  Catholicity  than  three  Bob  Ingersolls.  Ingersoll's 
bark  was  worse  than  his  bite,  and  his  speeches  nothing  more  than  a  rehash  of  the 
utterances  of  Voltaire  and  Tom  Paine,  dressed  up  in  an  oratorical  way  to  please  a 
modern  American  audience. 

Scarcely  have  we  begun  to  sing  Te  Deums,  when  we  are  forced  to  return  to 
our  Misereres.  Scarcely  is  one  quarrel  ended  when  another  begins.  Scarcely  have 
we  gained  a  triumph  when  we  are  visited  by  a  scandal.  But  we  must  bear  in  mind 
that  thi-  i.»  a  world  of  conflict  and  of  vicissitude  amid  the  conflict. 


St.  Patrick's  Parish,  East  St.  Louis,  Illinois.  41 

The  people  consider  Bishop  Janssen's  excommunication  to  be  unjust,  and, 
therefore,  do  not  feel  themselves  obliged  to  heed  it.  I  read  somewhere  that  an 
unjust  excommunication,  though  it  cannot  do  spiritual  harm,  must,  nevertheless, 
be  observed  until  it  is  set  aside  by  an  appeal. 

My  opinion  is  that  an  unjust  sentence  can  hurt  no  one  before  God.  I  trust 
the  people  of  St.  Patrick's  Parish  in  East  St.  Louis  shall  find  pardon  for  having 
manifested  their  great  desire  to  have  a  pastor  of  their  own  race  and  blood  in 
preference  to  one  who  is  hostile  to  them. 

There  is  in  this  matter,  I  think,  more  of  the  national  spirit  than  of  the  Catholic. 
It  is  an  unseemly  thing  to  place  over  an  Irish-American  parish  a  German  priest 
who  belongs  to  an  association  whose  object  is  to  sustain  the  German  language. 

This  nationalism  which  exists  in  the  diocese  of  Belleville,  is  opposed  to  and 
destructive  of  all  Catholicity.  These  men  will  treat  others  as  strangers.  How  can 
others  not  of  their  union  make  common  cause  with  such  extreme  national  bishops 
and  priests? 

It  is  passing  strange  that  because  an  Irish-American  congregation  declined 
to  accept  a  German  national  priest  it  is  excommunicated. 

Such  a  reason  for  excommunication  is  unheard  of. 

Not  unfrequently  this  nationalism  develops  sectional  and  sectarian  tendencies 
baleful  to  humanity  as  a  whole.  All  come  here  to  seek  a  home.  It  is  said  that  it 
is  out  of  place  for  Bishop  Janssen  to  belong  to  any  particular  national  verein,  since 
in  his  diocese  there  are  Irishmen,  Dutchmen,  Scandinavians,  and  Germans,  who 
came  here  to  build  up  a  great  nation.  The  priests  who  come  to  America  from 
Germany  and  Ireland  ought,  I  think,  to  come  here  as  so  many  St.  Bonifaces  and 
St.  Patricks,  preaching  Catholic  unity  and  seeking  to  bring  all  into  the  kingdom 
of  God — the  Church.  This  is  America  and  never  will  be  anything  else.  I  often 
said  and  I  repeat  now  that  any  one  who  does  not  like  America  should  return 
whence  he  came. 

The  East  St.  Louis  people  have  the  sympathy  of  all  classes,  Catholic  and 
non-Catholic.  Let  me  say  to  you  that  few  Catholic  laymen  and  certainly  no  non- 
Catholic  can  possibly  understand  the  working  of  Catholic  church  government. 
The  power  of  a  Catholic  bishop  is  practically  unlimited.  His  power  to  act  in  the 
most  unlimited  manner,  to  crush,  to  break  down  the  spirit  and  health  of  those 
under   his   rule,   may    each    and    all    be  exercised  without  even  the  least  public 


,._,  ,      ville,  Illinois,   vs. 

I  icion  of  injustice  and  tyranny.     Again,  another  need  of  the  Catholic  Church 
in  Alll,  i  rrity  and  less  show,  less  talk  and  more  prayers. 

It  is  my  opinion  that  the  time  has  come  when  men  must  speak  out  against 
evil  opi  n  whether         esiastical  or  civil  if  they  would  save  their  souls.     We 

mu>t  aiwaj  ell  in  mind  that  the  doctrines  of  the  Catholic  Church  are  one 

thing  and  the  Bins  and  shortcomings  of  individual  members  are  another.  The 
laity  are  made  to  know,  as  in  this  instance,  that  no  hishop,  no  priest,  is  person- 
ally infallible.  It  is  a  device  of  the  evil  one  to  cover  sin  when  men  try  to  hide 
the  evil  deeds  they  do  under  the  pretext  that  to  condemn  evil  is  to  condemn  the 

church. 

There  is  a  time  when  silence  becomes  a  participation  in  crime,  and  when 
men  .an  only  save  the  Church,  which  they  certainly  love,  by  denouncing  the 
dangers  which  threaten  her  progress. 

11.,-  excommunication  ever  been  used  in  St.  Louis?"  was  asked. 
Never,"  was  the  answer. 
"Is  there  any  other  instance  of  so  large  a  body  of  Catholics  as  that  at  St. 
Patrick's  Church  being  excommunicated  at  one  blow?" 

•  None  that  1  know  in  a  missionary  country.     The  method  of  excommunica- 
tion 'in  globo,'  to  my  idea,  cannot  be  used  in  a  missionary  country  like  America." 
"  Is  a  regular  form  of  words  used  in  an  edict  of  excommunication?" 
•■  Ye-,  a  regular  form  is  laid  down  in  the  books  on  canonical  law.    The  person 
who  is  excommunicated  must  be  named  directly."     Thus  spoke  Fr.  Kielty. 

The  learned  D'Avino,  in  his  ecclesiastical  encyclopedia,  at  the  word  "excom- 
munication," lays  down  this  principle: 

"  If  a  censure  is  evidently  null,   such  as  one  pronounced  after  a  legitimate 

appeal,  or  which  was  founded  upon  an  intolerable  mistake,  it  has  no  effect  before 

God  or  man.     And  consequently,  there  is  no  need  of  absolution  from  it.     And  as 

nullity  is   thoroughly  notorious,  there  is  not  any  obligation  to  pay  heed  to  it, 

even  outwardly." 

There   is   an   old   German    proverb,    which   is  very  applicable  in  this  case. 
K-  schlagt  nieht  immer  ein  wenn's  donnert."* 

The  calm  indifference  with  which  the  parishioners  treated  this  sentence  of  ex- 
communication much  perplexed  his  lordship.     He  had  now  launched  out  into  the 

*'.\  boll  'loes  not  always  fall  when  it  thunders." 


St.  Patrick's  Parish,  East  St.  Louis,  Illinois.  43 

deep,  and  begun  to  encounter  dangerous  rocks  which  should  awaken  within  him  a 
salutary  fear.  It  is  a  remark  of  Pascal's,  that  those  who  are  being  drifted  away  by 
a  current  at  sea  never  know  how  fast  they  are  being  swept  away  from  their  course 
until  they  come  across  some  rock  or  fixed  object,  when  they  then  at  once  discover 
their  true  predicament.  This  is  doubtless  true  of  Bishop  Janssen.  Trained  in  the 
narrow  school  of  Germanism,  he  had  never  come  to  consider  any  other  phase  of 
the  church.  To  him  the  Priester  Verein  was  a  great  propaganda,  whose  mandates 
he  religiously  executed.  The  American  and  Irish  claims  for  recognition  in  the 
government  of  the  church  were  unholy  thoughts  savoring  of  Americanism.  And 
in  this  delusive  course  did  he  sail  until  he  struck  upon  the  awakening  realities  that 
there  are  other  than  German  interests  to  be  conserved  and  promoted  in  this 
country — paramount  interests  which  a  true  bishop  should  ever  have  at  heart. 

"Don't  blame  the  bishop,"  wrote  the  editor  of  the  Watchman.  "He  made  a 
mistake — a  very  grave  and  costly  mistake,  which  no  one  deplores  now  more  than 
himself.     His  counsel  wTas  to  blame  for  that  mistake  more  than  himself." 

This  is  a  remarkably  weak  defense  of  his  lordship  of  Belleville.  The  bishop 
is  the  shepherd  of  our  souls;  the  sworn  champion  of  justice  and  right.* 

The  plea  put  forth  by  the  kind  editor,  that  if  Father  Cluse  would  resign,  he 
could  thus  extricate  his  friend,  the  bishop,  from  his  dilemma,  is  another  specious 
argument,  which  does  not  stand  the  test  of  sound  reasoning.  The  truth  is  Father 
Cluse  suffered  the  severest  criticism,  and  to  be  almost  pilloried,  to  sustain  the 
bishop's  contention  in  the  case.  While  the  bishop  entertained  the  hope  of  winning, 
it  would  be  disloyal  and  ungenerous  on  the  part  of  Father  Cluse  to  resign,  and 
that  vain  hope  the  bishop  cherished  until  the  fatal  message  came,  ordering  the 
withdrawal  of  Father  Cluse's  name  as  pastor  of  St.  Patrick's. 

Great  must  have  been  the  dismay  that  fell  upon  the  camps  of  the  Cahens- 
leyites  on  that  day  of  doom. 

"  If  you  have  tears,  prepare  to  shed  them  now." 

We  can  imagine  Father  Cluse  falling  upon  the  neck  of  his  episcopal  friend 

and  crying  out : 

"  O  this  is  the  poison  of  deep  grief."' 


*  It  is  related  of  St.  Bernard  that  when  told  such  a  one  was  pious,  the  Saint  remarked:  "He 
will  do  splendidly  for  the  Monastery."  When  told  that  another  was  learned  he  commended  him 
for  the  position  of  teacher  and  preacher;  when  a  third  was  spoken  of  as  prudent,  "There  is  a 
proper  person,"  he  remarked,  "for  a  bishopric." 


44 


Th>    Bishop  of  Belleville,   Illinois,  vs. 


To  which  hie  Lordship  responded : 

••  Weep  I  cannot ; 

But  my  heart  bleeds." 

Fatht  r  •  rough,  aside : 

••  Let  that  grieve  him.     Some  griefs  are  med'cinable." 

A  certain  clergyman,  present  at  the  scene,  and   partial  to  Horatian  Satires, 
aiMi'l : 

"Jnbeas  esse  miserum  qiLitouus  facit  id  libenter."* 


*  Lei  him  be  miserable  since  be  does  it  willingly, 


MR.  MICHAEL  F.  O'BRIEN. 


Mr.  O'Brien  is  entitled  to  the  respect  of  young  and  old  for  the  effective  services 

rendered  by  him  in  this  cause.    Although  his  business  required  his  personal 

attention  almost  constantly,  yet  he  never  absented  himself  from  a  single 

meeting,  and  was  liberal  in  his  cash  donations  to  stimulate  and 

encourage  the  good  work       He  has  made  a  place  for  himself 

among  the  progressive  young  men  of  East  St.   Louis. 


St.  Patrick's  Parish,  East  St.  Louis,  Illinois.  45 


MADE  A  VIRTUE  OF  NECESSITY. 


To  screen  his  friend  from  so  public  a  humiliation,  Father  Cluse  resolved  to 
formally  resign. 

East  St.  Louis,  Aug.  30,  1899. 
Right  Reverend  J.  Janssen,  Bishop  of  Belleville: 

Right  Reverend  and  Dear  Bishop — In  the  summer  of  the  year  1862  the 
first  Archbishop  of  Cincinnati,  the  Most  Reverend  John  B.  Purcell,  and  the  first 
Archbishop,  then  Bishop,  of  Philadelphia,  the  Right  Reverend  Frederic  Wood, 
visited  the  city  of  Muenster,  in  Westphalia,  on  their  return  from  Rome.  With  the 
eager  hope  of  inducing  some  aspirants  of  (to)  the  holy  priesthood  to  devote  their 
future  priestly  labors  to  the  United  States  of  America,  they  visited  three  episcopal 
institutions,  accompanied  by  Bishop  of  Muenster,  the  Right  Reverend  John  George 
Mueller.  I  was,  at  that  time,  studying  in  one  of  them,  the  Ludgerianum,  named 
after  Muenster's  first  Bishop,  St.  Ludger.  In  his  Latin  address  to  the  students, 
Archbishop  Purcell  touchingly  portrayed  the  vast  field  of  labor  and  the  great 
scarcity  of  priests  in  the  Lord's  vineyard  across  the  Atlantic.  "Venite  ad  nos  in 
Americam ;  ubi  animae  salvandae,  ibi  patria  sacerdotis."  Thus  pleaded  the  zealous 
Archbishop,  and  his  earnest  appeal  did  not  fail  to  thrill  many  a  youthful  heart. 
These  truly  apostolic  words  became  imprinted  upon  my  mind  and  germinated  in 
me  the  desire  to  one  day  labor  as  a  priest  of  God  in  the  United  States  of  North 
America.  Four  years  later  I  crossed  the  Atlantic,  finished  my  theological  studies, 
and,  having  learned  the  language  of  the  country,  was  ordained  priest  to  work  in 
the  Church  of  God  in  America,  for  Americans,  no  matter  of  what  nationality.  The 
first  thirteen  years  of  my  priesthood  were  devoted  to  Catholics  who,  tor  by  far  the 
greater  part  were  of  Irish  descent ;  afterwards  I  had  charge  of  Catholics  of  German 
descent. 

When,  about  five  months  ago,  your  Lordship  asked  me  if  I  would  be  willing 
to  resign  the  irremovable  rectorship  which  I  held  at  Germantown  and  take  charge 
of  St.  Patrick's  congregation  of  East  St.  Louis,  I  consented  to  do  so.  I  called  to 
mind  Archbishop  Purcell's  words,  heard  in  my  college  days:  "Come  to  us  to 
America;   where  souls  can  be  saved,  there  is  the  home  for  a  priest." 

I  confidently  hoped  that,  leaving  in  submission  to  my  bishop's  wish,  the 
parish  which  afforded  me  a  happy  home  for  seventeen  years,  I  should  surely  find 
a  home  again  there,  where,  in  his  opinion,  souls  might  be  saved  through  my 
ministry.     Besides,  I  was  fully  conscious  that  parishioners  whose  ancestors  hailed 


[Shop    Of   Belli  Ville,     Illinois,    VS. 

from  Erin'a  saint. -.1  soil,  evangelized  by  St.  Patrick,  were  as  clear  to  me  as  those 

whose  ancestors,  like  my  own,  had  lived  and  died  in  the  land  hallowed  by  the 

.  Boniface;   thai  I  could  bring  to  the  former  the  very  same  priestly  zeal, 

and  affection  and  genuine  sympathy  as  to  the  latter;  and  that  Ireland's  great 
apostle,  as  patron  saint  of  my  church  and  parish,  would  find  in  me  a  client  as 
loyal  and  devoted  many's  martyred  apostle  had,  whom  then  I  venerated  as 

patron  saint  of  my  church  and  parish.  On  the  eighteenth  day  of  last  May  I  left 
my  former  home,  ready  to  commence  my  priestly  labors  for  the  parishioners  of 
St.  Patrick's  congregation  of  East  St.  Louis,  intrusted  to  my  pastoral  care.  But, 
alas,  during  more  than  three  months,  narrow-minded  national  prejudice,  as  un- 
Catholic  and  un-American  as  it  is  despicable  and  detrimental  in  every  respect,  basely 
inflamed  and  eagerly  fed  by  a  few  individuals,  has  incredibly  succeeded  in  open 
rebellion  to  keep  the  lawful  pastor  from  entering  the  church,  there  to  offer  up  the 
Holy  Sacrifice  of  the  Mass,  to  administer  the  holy  sacraments,  to  preach  the  word 

id,  to  labor  for  the  salvation  of  immortal  souls. 

In  vain  [did]  the  representative  of  the  Holy  Father  has  admonished  [admon- 
ish] and  entreated  [entreat].  The  actual  infliction  of  the  severest  censure  of  the 
church  has  been  defied  and  disdained  by  the  few  instigators  and  abettors  of  the 
rebellion.  There  is  no  home  for  a  priest  in  a  parish  while  thus  his  best  endeavors 
to  work  for  the  honor  of  God  and  the  salvation  of  souls  are  most  scandalously 
frustrated.  Too  long  the  whole  of  the  congregation  has  been  subjected  to  heart- 
rending distress  and  spiritual  losses  through  the  guilt  of  a  few. 

The  timely  recommencement  [reopening]  of  St.  Patrick's  parochial  school,  in 
the  beginning  of  next  month,  is  of  paramount  importance — an  absolute  necessity. 
Therefore,    I    must   respectfully   beg,   my  dear  bishop,   to  hereby  tender  you  my 

nation  as  rector  of  St.  Patrick's  congregation  of  East  St.  Louis,  111.,  and  in 
all  earnestness  beseech  you  to  accept  it.  I  hope  that  the  enormous  scandal  which 
has  lasted  so  long  may  be  removed,  that  by  the  reopening  of  the  parochial  school 
the  children  may  not  be  deprived  of  the  inestimable  blessing  of  Catholic  education, 
that  the  salvation  of  all  who  are  of  good  will  may  be  secured,  and  peace  and  har- 
mony restored.  With  sentiments  of  the  highest  esteem,  I  remain,  dear  bishop, 
your  humble  servant,  \Y.   Cluse,  V.  G. 

Waiving  for  the  present  the  acceptance  of  the  resignation  of  the  Very  Reverend 
W.  Cluse.  V.  G.,  as  rector  of  St.  Patrick's  congregation  of  East  St.  Louis,  I  refer 
the  matter  of  the  difficulties  in  said  congregation  for  final  decision  to  His  Excellency, 
the  Apostolic  Delegate,  at  Washington,  D.  C.  Meanwhile,  especially  in  order  that 
the  parochial  school  may  be  opened  without  delay,  I  appoint  the  Reverend  J. 
Ilarkins  as  administrator  of  St.  Patrick's  congregation  of  East  St.  Louis. 

(iiven  at  Belleville,  111.,  this  thirty-first  day  of  August,  1899. 

John  Janssen,  Bishop  of  Belleville. 

What  a  beautiful  example  of  humility  and  spiritual  condescension  is  here 
given  us  by  the  resignation  of  Father  Cluse,  and  the  waiver  of  Bishop  Janssen  in 
reference  thereto.     Why  did  Burke  tell  us  that  the  age  of  chivalry  is  gone? 


St.  Patrick's   /'(dish,   K<i*t   St.   Louis,   Illinois.  4i 

When  Father  Cluse  voluntarily  (?)  resigned  the  pastorate  of  St.  Patrick's, 
the  parishioners  met  in  vast  numbers  to  discuss  the  matter.  The  following  is  the 
press  account  of  the  meeting : 

"More  than  2,000  men,  women  and  children  gathered  in  St.  Patrick's  Church 
yard,  East  St.  Louis,  last  evening,  to  discuss  the  resignation  of  Vicar-General  Cluse, 
as  rector  of  the  parish,  and  the  appointment  of  Father  Harking  as  administrator. 
There  were  handshakings  and  good  old  Irish  congratulations. 

The  meeting  had  been  called  for  eight  o'clock,  but  half  an  hour  before  that 
time  the  crowd  had  taken  every  bit  of  available  space.  The  late-comers  climbed 
over  fences  and  on  to  points  of  vantage  on  the  church  and  the  parochial  residence 
adjoining.  Many  were  unable  to  get  into  the  yard  and  these  filled  the  pavement 
and  street  in  front  of  the  church. 

The  meeting  was  called  to  order  by  Patrick  Wallace,  and  M.  J.  Walsh  was 
chosen  secretary.  Dennis  McCarthy  made  the  first  talk.  He  spoke  of  the  letter 
of  the  bishop,  notifying  the  parishioners  that  Father  Cluse  had  resigned,  and  that 
Father  Harkins  had  been  appointed  administrator.  Cheers  which  were  loud  and 
long  interrupted  his  talk  at  frequent  intervals. 

P.  B.  Cusack  and  City  Attorney  Daniel  McGlynn  followed.  Both  advised  the 
parishioners  to  accept  the  bishop's  appointment  of  Father  Harkins  as  adminis- 
trator until  the  trouble  could  be  settled  by  Mgr.  Martinelli  at  Washington. 

At  the  conclusion  of  Mr.  McGlynn's  remarks,  Doctor  John  Stack  introduced  a 
set  of  resolutions  which  he  read  and  which  were  unanimously  adopted.  The 
resolutions  follow : 

Whereas,  The  members  of  St.  Patrick's  congregation  have  learned  with  in- 
expressible satisfaction  of  the  resignation  of  the  Reverend  W.  Cluse,  as  rector  of 
St.  Patrick's  congregation ;  and, 

Whereas,  The  Reverend  J.  Harkins,  rector  of  St.  Mary's  congregation,  this 
city,  an  Irish-American  priest,  who  is  a  credit  to  the  Church,  and  beloved  by  all 
who  know  him,  has  been  appointed  administrator  of  this  congregation;   and, 

Whereas,  Said  resignation  and  appointment  practically  terminates  the  long 
and  unpleasant  controversy  between  this  congregation  and  his  Lordship,  the  Right 
Reverend  J.  Janssen,  Bishop  of  Belleville,  which  controversy  we  have  so  sincerely 
deplored,  and  for  the  settlement  of  which  we  thank  Almighty  God  from  the  bottom 
of  our  hearts;   and, 

Whereas,  Our  contention  has  been  for  an  Irish  or  Irish- American  priest; 
therefore  be  it 

Resolved,  By  the  members  of  St.  Patrick's  congregation,  in  mass  meeting- 
assembled,  that  without  reservation  or  condition,  we  accept  and  submit  to  the  ap- 
pointment of  the  Reverend  J.  Harkins  as  administrator  by  his  Lordship,  in  Belle- 
ville, and  pledge  ourselves  to  greater  effort  in  the  future  in  behalf  of  our  beloved 
parish  and  our  holy  mother  Church ;  be  it  further 

Resolved,  That  we  hold  ourselves  in  readiness  to  promptly  and  fully  comply 
with  every  demand,  and  obey  with  alacrity  every  request  of  the  newly  appointed 


j  g  p  o/"  Belleville,  Illinois,  vs. 

administrator,  whom  we  welcome  to  our  midst  with  open  arms,  and  assure  him  of 
a  genuine  Irish  welcome. 

M.  .1.    Walsh  and  Th as   Ilanifan  followed  with  short  talks.     Mr.  Hanifan 

said  that  the  appointment  of  Father  Harkins  as  administrator  was  highly  satisfac- 
tory, and  that  he  hoped  that  the  church  would  soon  be  provided  with  a  permanent 
Irish  priest. 

The  American  and  rrish  flags  floated  from  the  flagstaff  and  parts  of  the  church. 

Father  Harkins  was  notified  that  he  would  be  accepted  as  administrator  to 
the  parish,  and  arrangements  made  to  withdraw  the  guards  from  the  church  prop- 
erty.    The  parochial  school  was  opened  and  peace  reigned  once  more. 

A  committee  was  appointed  to  go  in  carriages  to  Father  Harkins'  parochial 

lenee  and  escort  him  to  the  St.  Patrick's  parochial  residence  where  he  was 
dnly  installed  as  administrator  of  the  parish. 

The  reception  committee  and  escort  was  composed  of  Messrs.  James  Goff, 
Thomas  Doyle,  Thomas  Irwin,  Thomas  Hanifan,  Dr.  John  Stack,  M.  J.  Walsh, 
Daniel  BicGlynn  and  Patrick  McKane." 

And  thus  a  far-reaching  victory  was  won,  or,  at  least,  was  in  sight.  Some 
episcopal  manoeuverings  were  to  be  gone  through  ere  the  lowering  of  the  national- 
istic flag.  It  would  never  do,  so  the  bishop  thought,  to  permit  his  sentence  of 
excommunication  to  pass  down  "into  innocuous  desuetude."  He  would  withdraw 
his  ineffectual  fulmination  in  a  formal  manner,  and  on  terms  most  humiliating  to 
his  proud  opponents.  Accordingly  a  paper  is  prepared,  to  be  signed  by  the  members 
of  the  parish,  admitting  that  they  had  been  wrong  in  disobeying  the  ecclesiastical 
authorities,  asking  forgiveness  and  promising  that  in  future  their  conduct  would 
be  along  the  lines  of  obedience  to  Church  authorities.  The  introduction  of  this 
document  was  the  height  of  audacity  and  infamous  dishonesty.  The  parishioners, 
though  determined  never  to  surrender,  yearned  for  peace  and  ecclesiastical 
harmony.  They  were  ready  to  conform  to  any  empty  formality  to  end  the  tedious 
conflict.  They  learned  that  it  was  an  indispensible  condition  in  the  final  adjust- 
ment of  the  case.  With  this  view  many  of  the  parishioners,  and  among  them 
some  of  their  prominent  leaders,  signed  the  document.  They  did  so,  however, 
under  more  than  a  mere  protest.  They  boldly  stated  that  they  would  renew  the 
fight  on  the  morrow  under  similar  circumstances.  And,  sad  to  say,  two  clergy- 
men stood  by  giving  moral  support,  as  it  were,  to  the  bishop's  policy. 

We  learn  from  Lord  Bacon  not  to  think  that  God  can  be  served  or  pleased 
"with  the  unclean  sacrifice  of  a  lie." 


St.  Patrick's  Parish,  East  St.  Louis,  Illinois.  49 

A  bishop  who  would  have  recourse  to  such  methods  of  escape  from  the 
humiliation  of  defeat,  should  get  himself  to  a  monastery  to  acquire  the  fear  of 
God.  Some  pious  ninny  will  doubtless  condemn  the  writer  for  exposing  falsehood 
and  rascality  in  holy  places.  Listen  to  the  advice  of  the  broadmindei  Leo  XIII. 
When  investigating  the  Vatican  records  Pope  Leo  XIII.  said  to  Dom.  Gasquet, 
the  librarian,  "publish  everything  of  interest — everything,  whether  it  tends  to 
the  discredit  or  credit  of  the  ecclesiastical  authorities ;  for  you  may  be  sure  that 
if  the  Gospel  had  been  written  in  our  day  the  treachery  of  Judas  and  the  denial 
of  St.  Peter  would  have  been  suppressed  for  fear  of  scandalizing  weak  consciences." 
So  Lord  Halifax  told  the  English  Church  Union. 

At  last  appeared  the  long-looked-for  announcement  that  St.  Patrick's  Church 
gets  a  representative  and  acceptable  priest.  Bishop  Janssen  appoints  Father 
Charles  Sweeny  as  rector,  and  thus  ends  a  great  public  scandal  which  will  never 
be  forgotten  by  a  suffering  people,  who  have  borne  the  burden  of  a  mighty  contest 
against  a  great  and  threatening  evil  affecting  the  Catholic  Church  in  America. 

As  a  corollary  to  the  history  of  this  celebrated  case,  comes  the  astonishing 
news  that  the  final  decision  emanated  from  Rome  and  not  from  Washington. 

The  Republic,  of  October  25th,  gives  the  following  evidently  authentic  in- 
formation : 


ROME  SAYS  BISHOP  JANSSEN  ERRED.— HOLDS  THAT  THE  EXCOMMUNICATION 

OF  ST.  PATRICK'S   PARISHIONERS  WAS  NOT  DESERVED. 

A  FAR=REACHINQ  DECISION. 

"According  to  a  cablegram  received  last  night  by  the  Republic  from  Rome,  the 
decision  which  settled  the  dispute  between  St.  Patrick's  parishioners  in  East  St. 
Louis  and  Bishop  Janssen  of  Belleville,  emanated  from  the  Propaganda  at  Rome, 
to  whom  it  was  not  generally  known  that  the  grievances  of  the  congregation  had 
been  carried. 

The  decision  is  considered  far-reaching  in  its  effect,  and  it  is  thought  that  it 
will  do  away  with  all  future  conflict  between  bishops  and  their  flocks  concerning 
the  appointment  of  pastors. 

It  also  explains  the  final  action  of  Bishop  Janssen  in  his  settlement  of  the  St. 
Patrick's  Church  controversy.  The  parishioners  have  never  known  that  the  case 
was  decided  at  Rome.  They  were  under  the  impression  that  Mgr.  Martinelli,  the 
Papal  Delegate,  had  acted  as  judge  in  the  case,  and  drafted  the  opinion  which  was 
instrumental  in  bringing  about  the  settlement  of  the  differences. 

Strange  to  say  at  the  time  the  supposed  decision  of  Mgr.  Martinelli  reached 
East  St.   Louis,   every  effort  to  obtain  a  copy  of  it  proved  futile.     All    that  the 


50 


Bishop  of  Belleville,   Illinois,   vs. 


parishioners    were   told    was    that    Father  (Muse   would   resign   according  to   the 
terms  of  the  decision,  and  that  Father  Sweeney  would  be  the  pastor  of  the  church. 

The  text  of  the  decision  is  in  this  cablegram  from  Rome: 

llowing  is  the  full  text  of  the  official  instructions  from  Cardinal  Ledoch- 
owski  to  the   Bishop  of  Belleville,  111.,  bearing  on  the  recent  controversy  in  the 
tholio  Church  of  East  St.  Louis: 

"Remove  immediately  tin-  excommunication  from  the  parish,  as  they  do  not 
deserve  it.  Get  Father  Cluse  to  resign,  and  appoint  a  pastor  of  their  own  nation- 
ality over  them." 

Cardinal  Ledochowski  is  Cardinal  Prefect  of  the  Propaganda,  to  whom  belongs 
tin-  final  settlement  of  all  ecclesiastical  controversies  of  this  nature.  There  is  no 
appeal  from  his  ruling.  It  follows  on  these  instructions  that  the  general  practice 
of  the  Church  for  the  future  in  the  United  States  will  be  that  bishops  must  appoint 
pastors  according  to  the  nationality  of  congregations. 


Til.-  Cahensleyite  antipathy  towards  everything  Irish  cannot  arise  from  any 
racial  antagonism,  for  we  see  no  traces  of  it  outside  this  narrow  school  of  nation- 
alism. This  unsocial  and  irreligious  condition  is  brought  about  by  the  efforts  of 
a  Cahensleyite  press  and  the  imprudent  utterances  of  Cahensleyite  bishops. 

bishop  Baltes,  in  his  day,  raved  at  almost  every  society  bearing  an  Irish 
character.  "The  Ancient  Order  of  Hibernians"  incurred  his  chief  w'rath,  next 
came  the  "Hibernian  Benevolent,"  the  "Emerald  Beneficial  Association,"  and, 
wonderful  to  relate,  the  "Roman  Catholic  Total  Abstinence  Society."  Even  the 
•Knights  of  St.  Patrick"  did  not  escape  his  wrathful  condemnation. 

It  is  really  pitiable  to  see  a  Roman  Catholic  Bishop  "play  such  fantastic  tricks 
before  high  heaven." 

Some  years  ago  the  Archbishops  of  the  country,  in  convention  assembled,  at 
i'     delphia,  declared  most  approvingly  of  this  very  order — the  A.  0.  H. 

he -e  is  not  a  more  public-spirited  body  of  Catholic  men  in  this  country  than 
this   ve,  der,  whose  members   would  die  in  defence  of  the  faith  when  their 

Cahensle;    ;  ad   cers  would  offer  incense  to  Jupiter. 

Bishop  Ft  •.,  of  Leavenworth,  attempted  some  years  ago  to  play  the  same  role 
towards  the  Ancif  t  Order  of  Hibernians  and  other  kindred  societies.  We  have 
always  considered  a  i  a  nice,  poor  man,  but  we  have  never  gotten  over  the  scandal 
of  elevating  a  green  G  nan  monk  to  the  American  Bishopric.  We  consider  it  a 
mortal  sin  on  the  pan  oi  i  se  who  maliciously  considered  the  interests  of  Germany 
rather  than  those  of  the  C    holic  Church  in  America. 

Bishop  Blondel,  of  L«  Montana,  though  not  a  Cahensleyite,  is  narrow 

enough  to  see  through  a  .ole  with  both  eyes— to  use  a  Braun  figure.     We 

i  to  a  broader  and  more  practical  view  of  his  duty 
ain  all. 

0.  R. 


hope  the  people  will  convei 
— to  make  himself  all  to  al 


We  notice  in  an  article  in  the  Republic  of  January  30th,  just  as  we  were  going 
to  press,  that  in  his  mad  desire  to  humiliate  the  parishioners  of  St.  Patrick's  parish 
and  exasperate  them  to  deeds  unbecoming  good  Catholics  and  law  abiding  citizens, 
Bishop  Janssen  is  again  attempting  to  force  the  church  choir  to  play  German 
music  at  the  masses  to  this  exclusively  Irish  congregation. 

What  manner  of  man  must  he  be?  How  long  will  this  bishop,  seemingly  made 
insane  by  worshiping  at  the  shrine  of  Cahensleyism,  be  permitted  to  tyrannize  over 
those  people?  Will  our  Apostolic  Delegate,  whose  wisdom  and  fairness  is  so  well 
established,  suffer  this  madman  to  drive  those  people  away  from  the  Church 
because  they  refuse  to  be  annexed  to  his  Priester  Verein? 

It  will  bs  remembered  that  Bishop  Janssen  attempted  the  introduction  of 
German  music  in  St.  Patrick's  church  during  the  life  of  our  lamented  friend, 
Father  O'Halloran,  and  actually  succeeded  in  persuading  the  leader  of  the  choir 
to  use  it  without  the  knowledge  or  consent  of  the  priest;  but  true  to  his  patriotic 
instincts,  as  soon  as  that  Cicilian  sound  fell  upon  his  ears  while  offering  up  the 
holy  sacrifice  of  the  mass,  he  turned  on  the  altar,  and  pointing  to  the  choir,  said 
in  a  manner  never  to  be  forgotten  by  the  choir  or  congregation,  "Stop  that,  non 
of  that  here;  American  music  is  good  enough  for  me."  And  thanks  v  a  \  u- 
sand  everlasting  thanks,  to  the  members  of  that  splendid  choir.  Tl  v  .vould  not 
insult  his  memory  by  yielding  to  the  unwarranted  order  of  Bishoj  Janssen  to  sub- 
stitute German  for  American  music.  May  their  lives  be  long  ;  id  nappy  and  their 
offsprings  rise  to  fame. 


St.  Patrick's  Parish,   East  St.   Louis,  Illinois.  51 


POSTSCRIPT. 


The  court  fool  of  the  serio-comic  phase  of  this  affair  was  a  Rev.  Mr.  Gough, 
who  thrust  himself  into  the  contest  in  a  most  unwarranted  and  ludicrous  manner. 
He  wrote  a  letter  to  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  opposition  assuring  him  that  the  spirit 
of  the  late  Father  O'Halloran  had  appeared  to  him  five  times,  manifesting  great 
unrest  over  the  conduct  of  his  former  parishioners.     The  ghost  asked  how  was 

D ,  and  the  spiritualistic  medium  from  Belleville  responded  that  he  was  doing 

well.     I  am  glad  to  hear  it,  said  the  ghost,  and  then  melted  into  thin  air. 

Finding  that  the  spiritualistic  document  only  provoked  contempt  on  the  part 
of  St.  Patrick's  parishioners,  he  next  let  loose  on  them  the  dogs  of  war.  The 
Post-Dispatch  of  June  27th,  which  contained  his  intemperate  attack,  thus  refers 
to  it: 

"The  parishioners  of  St.  Patrick's  Church,  East  St.  Louis,  are  attacked  from 
a  new  and  unexpected  quarter.     An  irate  priest  of  their  own  nationality  denounces 
them   and   calls  them  un-American,  un-patriotic,  un-Christian — an  unprinciple  1 
degenerate  set.     He  declares  that  they  are  in  an  anarchistic  state,  and  that  1 
is  a  total  absence  of  all  respect,  order  and  decency." 

Among  the  shameless  falsehoods  stated  by  this  Jack-o-the-la'^  ;n  from  Belle- 
ville, and  repeated  by  Rev.  Koenig  and  Herr  Kirk  of  the  Eo  5t.  Louis  Journal, 
is  that  he  was  forced  to  declare  emphatically  to  the  bishop  th  ne  would  not  accept 
the  rectorship  of  St.  Patrick's.  This  plainly  implies  th  it  he  was  offered  the 
position.  Now  Bishop  Janssen  declared  emphatical]  to  a  priest  of  his  diocese 
that  he  did  not  offer  the  aforesaid  rectorship  to  Rev  >ough.  To  whom  shall  we 
impute  the  emphatic  falsehood? 

The  St.  Patrick's  Church  Committee,  consisting  f  W.  J.  Broderick,  President; 
P.  J.  Wallace,  Vice-President;  Dr.  J.  Stack,  Reco  ling  Secretary;  M.  J.  Walsh, 
Corresponding  Secretary;  W.  J.  Heil}',  Treasurer;  ,    mes  Goff  and  Thomas  Doyle, 

A? 


x\V 


The  Bishop  of  Bellerille,   Illinois,   vs. 

Trustees,  drew  up  a  caustic  reply  to  the  slanderous  allegations  of  Father  Gough. 
When  hie  Reverence  from  Monahan  saw  himself  as  others  see  him,  he  grew  furious, 
had  hay  in  his  horn  would  say.     He  revelled  in  personal  abuse  in  a 

mosi  indecent  style  unbecoming  a  gentleman,  not  to  say  a  priest. 

Father  Gough's  reply  was  as  the  effort  of  the  fly  in  the  cobweb,  entangling 
him  the  more  he  labored  to  justify  his  conduct, 

M.  .1.  Walsh,  President  of  the  Catholic  Knights  of  Illinois,  replied  to  the 
"irate  priest"  in  the  columns  of  the  Post-Dispatch,  as  follows: 

My  reason  for  answering  Father  Gough  is  that  he  attacked  me  personally 
because  I  Bigned  an  answer  to  him,  as  a  member  of  the  committee  selected  by  the 
parishioners  of  St.  Patrick's  congregation  to  do  their  bidding  and  carry  out  their 
wishes.  The  answer,  as  signed  by  the  committee,  was  from  the  parishioners  and 
qoI  from  the  committee,  as  he  would  have  the  public  believe. 

Alter  the  gentlemen  of  our  parish  defeated  him  in  argument,  he  then  tries 

el  revenge  for  his  whipping  from  the  ladies  and  children,  and  if  he  should 
Bucceed,  he  will  next  try  the  babies.  He  says  he  "is  a  priest  of  God,"  but  from 
bis  language  on  the  altar  last  Sunday  in  regard  to  the  people  of  St.  Patrick's 
Parish,  I  would  not  take  him  for  such.  Good  priests  of  the  Catholic  Church  mind 
their  own  business  and  attend  to  their  religious  duties.  Wherever  they  travel  they 
wear  the  Roman  collar  and  don't  go  in  disguise.  He  speaks  of  his  nationality  as 
an  American.  He  finds  great  fault  with  Irish  people  who  were  born  in  the 
counties  of  Cork  and  Kerry,  the  birthplace  of  Daniel  O'Connel,  the  Catholic 
emancipator. 

Now,  why  docs  this  man  trouble  himself  so  much  about  our  local  affairs? 
We  have  not  asked  him.  Is  he  trying  to  get  our  mothers,  wives  and  daughters  to 
i  in  his  spiritualistic  class  and  leave  mother  church  and  believe  in  his  dreams  and 
-,.iii  rappings,  and  be  professing  to  be  a  Catholic  priest?  I  have  in  my  possession 
Letters  iiom  him  where  he  states  plainly  that  our  late  lamented  Father  O'Halloran 
appeared  to  \  im  five  times  and  was  in  much  trouble,  and  that  if  I  would  turn 
traitor  to  St.  P<  'k's  Parish  by  helping  to  allow  a  German  priest  for  its  pastor, 
it  would  be  all  web  with  our  dear  deceased  pastor's  soul.  Does  he  not  know  that 
be,  lev.  Mr.  Gough  -nore  than  any  living  man  was  the  one  who  stirred  up  all  this 
strife?  For  the  pafa  ght  ye  .is  that  I  have  known  him  his  whole  subject  of 
conversation  would  be  al  ♦  tb  Germans;  bow  mean  they  were  treating  him,  and 
thai  it  he  celebrated  mass  ast  or  too  slow  how  they  would  run  to  the  Bishop 

and  report  him,  and  bow  the  shop  would  take  the  week  he  selected  for  his  church 
fairs  from  him  and  give  it  to  i  Germans  and  make  him  hold  his  at  another  time, 
and  he  never  lei  anything  g.    by  without  accusing  him  of  it,  and  he  never  had  a 

- 1  word  for  his  superiors,      id  they  were  leading  him  a  dog's  life,  and  how  on 

one  occasion  he  asked  for  bis  release  from  the  diocese.  He  was  the  first  rebel, 
and  now  thai  he  has  succeeded.  '.,  stirring  up  this  strife,  he  is  the  first  traitor  to  all 
■    -<■  ulio  believe  his  story. 


St.   Patrick's  Parish,  East  St.   Louis,  Illinois.  53 

From  the  bad  faith  in  which  lie  acted,  not  only  toward  this  congregation,  but 
towards  the  Bishop,  I  would  not  be  surprised  to  learn  of  his  expulsion  from  the 
diocese.  Then  it  would  be  in  order  for  him  to  establish  a  spiritualistic  church 
and  have  all  the  seances  he  may  desire. 

M.  J.   Walsh, 

332  Collinsville  Avenue. 


DR.  STACK  TO  FR.  GOUGH.— ABOUT  THE  PRIESTER=VEREIN. 

Dr.  John  Stack,  of  St.  Patrick's  Parish,  East  St.  Louis,  has  asked  the  Post- 
Dispatch  the  courtesy  of  space  for  the  publication  of  the  following  reply  to  Rev. 
Father  Gough's  letter: 

Dear  Father  Gough: — As  you  have  in  your  letter  of  June  29th  so  kindly 
referred  to  me  as  a  good  man,  I  hope  you  will  pardon  my  addressing  you  as 
Dear  Father,  which  I  hope  you  will  understand  to  mean  the  priest  and  not  the  man. 

You  say  you  are  an  American.  So  am  I,  and  it  is  for  that  reason  I  protest 
against  the  appointment  of  Father  Cluse.  If  Father  Cluse  was  a  true  American  or 
a  Roman  Catholic  priest,  would  he  be  such  a  prominent  member  of  the  Priester- 
Verein?  If  he  were  a  true  American  he  would  not  be  permitted  to  join  the 
Pries ter-Verein,  which  is  an  organization  of  German  priests,  with  its  officers,  etc., 
who  pledge  themselves  to  work  for  the  advancement  of  each  other,  of  German 
interests,  and  of  the  beloved  German  mother  tongue.  Shame  on  them  to  use  their 
religion  for  such  ulterior  motives.  If  the  Priester-Verein  is  to  control  the  Catholic 
religion  in  America,  and  its  members  administer  the  faith  in  the  interest  of 
Germany,  1  say  I  want  none  of  it.  I  may  be  classed  as  a  degenerate  for  clinging 
to  the  Roman  Catholic  in  preference  to  the  German  Catholic  religion;  but,  where, 
in  the  Belleville  diocese,  where  the  bishop  himself  is  pledged  to  work  for  German 
interests  and  where  he  has  fulfilled  that  pledge  nobly,  could  one  find  the  Roi^u. 
Catholic  religion  if  the  Priester-Verein  with  its  standard  bearer,  Bishop  J  .issen, 
had  not  been  stopped. 

They  have  nearly  every  other  church  in  the  diocese  and  cove*  /St.  Patrick's, 
but  there  they  calculated  without  their  hosts,  as  they  will  never  •  et  that  one. 

As  one  of  the  most  prominent  members  of  the  Priester-  /erein,  a  priest  in 
St.  Louis,  admitted: 

The  appointment  was  a  terrible  blunder.  It  was  terr'  i?,  I  suppose,  from  the 
fact  that  the  machinations  of  the  Priester-Verein  would  b  :  exposed,  and  they  are 
exposed,  and  the  longer  the  fight  continues  the  more  v;    1  they  be  exposed. 

This  Priester-Verein  is  nothing  less  than  an  exj>  rescence  which  has  grown 
upon  the  Catholic  Church,  and  has  become  so  intoler  it  and  treacherous,  not  only 
against  ecclesiastical,  but  also  against  civil  authority,  that  the  strong  arm  of  law 
would  be  justified  in  using  extreme  measures  in  wiping  it  out. 

Space  will  not  admit  of  a  description  of  the  directory  of  German  Catholic 
priests. 


54  Tin    Bishop  of  Belleville,  Illinois,   vs. 

You  say  Father  Cluse  speaks  English.  Well,  I  am  glad  of  that,  as  that  is 
more  than  the  Bishop  can  do,  who  never  thought  enough  of  America  to  learn 
tlu.  ].„,,,  ii,,\v  ridiculous  you  appear  when  you  say  that  a  member  of  this 

beming  organization  can  minister  to  an  exclusively  Irish-American  congregation 
tter  than  one  who  is  pledged  to  work  for  God  instead  of  German  interests.    Dear 
father,  your  reasoning  powers  must  he  dulled  by  lack  of  sleep  due  to  the  nocturnal 
visits  of  our  late  lamented  pastor,  which  you  claim  to  receive. 

You  enumerate  several  Irish-American  parishes  presided  over  by  German- 
American  priests— more  Priester  Vercin— but  how  many  exclusively  German- 
American  parishes  presided  over  by  Irish  priests?  How  many  cathedrals  in  this 
country  where  the  German  language  is  spoken  exclusively,  and  where  any  other 
nationality  cannot  attend  because  they  cannot  understand  the  sermon?  More  good 
work  of  the  standard  hearer  of  the  Priester- Verein. 

You  say  I  made  my  first  communion  in  St.  Henry's  Church.  I  pronounce 
this  a  fabrication,  and  you  know  it,  and  even  if  I  did,  that  was  at  the  time  when 
St.  Henrv's  Church  was  a  Roman  Catholic  Church,    and  not  a  German  Catholic 

Church. 

Again,  how  ridiculous,  when  you,  who  claim  to  be  an  American,  would,  as 
they  did  in  mediaevil  times,  visit  the  sins  of  the  parent  on  the  child. 

I  attended  school  there  when  it  was  under  the  principalship  of  that  staunch 
old  Irishman,  Humphrey  Hartnet,  and  when  it  was  a  public  school  and  maintained 
by  general  taxation, 

I  am  glad  you  wrote  this  letter,  as  you  have  proven  to  us  that  our  contention 
that  the  pastorate  of  our  church  was  offered  to  three  Irishmen  was  a  subterfuge, 
as  you  say  that  the  demands  of  the  priests  of  the  diocese  of  Belleville  have  made 
it  necessary  to  establish  the  Vicar-General  in  East  St.  Louis.  How  many  more 
reasons  will  you  give  for  this  "terrible  blunder?" 

Since  you  have  undertaken  the  work  of  the  Priester-Verein  (as  you  are 
undoubtedly  fulfilling  the  orders  of  the  Bishop),  you  should  have  been  better 
instructed. 

They  say  Father  Cluse  was  appointed  because  of  his  great  executive  ability  and 
his  great  everything  else,  even  his  great  love  for  the  Irish,  although  a  Priester- 
Vereiner. 

You  claim  that  great  friendship  existed  betwreen  you  and  our  late  lamented 
pastor.  The  next  time  he  appears  to  you  ask  him  why  he  would  not  permit  you 
to  come  into  the  room  to  see  him  but  a  short  while  before  he  died.  Now,  dear 
father,  in  the  future  stick  to  the  truth.  Never  mind  about  the  financial  affairs  of 
St.  Patrick '-. 

Look  up  the  records  of  St.  Luke's  after  your  administration  of  13  years,  and  I 
don't  think  you  will  attempt  to  throw  mud  at  anybody  else.  You  offer  as  an  excuse 
for  your  entering  this  controversy,  that  abuse  was  heaped  upon  you  for  fear  you 
would  be  a  candidate  for  this  parish.  If  this  were  so,  God  knows  the  abuse  was 
well  put,  and  I  am  glad  it  had  'he  desired  effect ;  but  again  your  reasoning  seems 
fallacious,  as  you  know  you  wrote  a  letter  in  the  very  beginning  of  this  fight  saying 
you  would  not  be  a  candidate,  :nd  expressing  a  hope   that   this    most   excellent 


St.  Patrick's  Parish,   East   St.   Louis,  Illinois.  55 

congregation  would  receive  a  worthy  successor  to  Father  O'Halloran.  Then  -'a 
most  excellent  congregation ;"  now,  a  set  of  degenerates,  hecause  we  assert  our 
rights  and  dare  maintain  them.  Since  you  wrote  those  letters  setting  forth  your 
belief  in  spirits, etc.,  you  were  deserving  of  any  abuse  which  has  been  heaped  upon 
you.  1  suppose  you  will  be  given  a  complimentary  gallery  seat  the  next  meeting 
of  the  Priester-Verein  for  your  loyalty  to  the  cause. 

Now,  dear  father,  this  is  from  me  personally,  and  not  as  a  representative  of 
St.  Patrick's  congregation. 

Dk.  John  Stack, 

5034  Missouri  Avenue. 

AN   OPEN    LETTER.— ADDRESSED  TO  REVEREND   FATHER  JAMES  GOUGH,  OF 

ST.  LUKE'S,  BELLEVILLE. 

East  St.  Louis,  III..  July  11,  1899. 

In  public  prints  published  in  Belleville  and  in  St.  Louis  I  find  what  purports 
to  be  an  extract  from  a  sermon  delivered  by  you  to  your  congregation  on  Sunday, 
June  25th.  As  I  find  no  denial  of  these  extraordinary  utterances,  I  must  assume 
that  they  were  made  as  reported,  and  cannot  allow  them  to  pass  unchallenged. 
The  space  I  can  reasonably  expect  to  be  allowed  to  occupy  in  this  open  letter  pre- 
cludes the  possibility  of  a  categorical  reply  to  your  tirade,  and  I  shall  confine 
myself  to  a  few  of  your  statements. 

You  call  the  desire  of  East  St.  Louis  Catholics  of  St.  Patrick's  congregation  to 
accept  none  other  but  an  Irish  priest,  un-American  and  non-Catholic. 

I  wish  to  say  to  you  that  to  protest  and  battle  against  wrong  is  never  un-Amer- 
ican, nor  can  it  be  non-Catholic.  The  power  and  glory  to  which  the  Catholic 
Church  has  attained  is  due  to  its  unremittent,  aggressive  and  heroic  struggles  for 
the  right  as  seen  by  Catholics  and  taught  by  the  church.  Tyranny  and  oppress, 
are  abhorrent  both  to  the  Catholic  and  American,  and  he  would  be  a  poor  Americ  n 
citizen  and  a  poor  Catholic  who  would  bow  to  either. 

You  charge  the  East  St.  Louis  Catholics  of  St.  Patrick's  with  being  an 
unprincipled  and  degenerate  set,  who  have  brought  the  blush  of  shame  to  the 
Catholics  of  America.  This  is  indeed  a  serious  charge.  Who  are  the  men  and 
women  that  compose  this  degenerate  set?  They  are  those  who,  up  to  this  time, 
have  stood  well  in  this  community  as  among  its  best  citizens,  until  you  discovered 
their  degeneracy.  They  are  an  important  part  of  this  community,  which  has 
brought  East  St.  Louis  from  a  mud  village  to  its  present  state  of  prosperity,  the 
pride  of  Illinois  and  the  Queen  City  of  Egypt.  They  are  the  men  and  women  who 
had  fought  the  battles  of  adversity  and  emerged  conquerors. 

They  unprincipled  !  I  challenge  you  to  point  out  a  community  more  devoted 
to  the  principles  of  morality,  of  honorable  businers  methods,  aye,  and  of  true 
religion,  than  the  men  and  women  of  St.  Patrick's  congregation.  This  charge, 
sir,  is  false;   shamefully  unfounded. 

I  deny  also  that  this  congregation  has  been  gailty  of  maligning  the  three  Irish- 
American  priests  first  in  line  of  succession  to  the 'rectorship  of  St.  Patrick's.     The 


The  Bishop  of  Belleville,   Illinois,   vs. 


demand  ol  the  congregation  has  been  from  the  first,  an  Irish-American  priest  for 
this  Irish- American  congregation,  and  this  is  the  head  and  front  of  our  offending. 
The  jt   is  true,  or  has    existed,   a   preference  for  Father  Downey;    this 

preference,  however,  was  humbly  expressed  in  petitions,  verba]  and  written,  and 

I  do  not  believe  that  even  you  will  assert  that  an  American  citizen  has  not  a  right 
a  his  preference  to  the  appointing  power;  and  it  is  simply  untrue  that 
the  contention  from  the  beginning  has  been,  as  you  state,  that  they  would  have  none 
but  a  "vouug  priest  lately  from  Ireland."  No  such  demand  was  made,  nor  is 
intended  to  be  made. 

"After  two  years'  practical  administration  of  the  gentleman  they  so  badly  want, 
the  Bishop  discovers  the  total  absence  of  all  respect,  order  and  decency." 

This  charge  thai  the  nun  and  women  of  this  congregation  are  lacking  in  order 
and  decency  is  too  ridiculous  to  notice,  were  it  not  so  vile.  All  who  know  any- 
thing about  the  members  of  this  congregation  must  be  astounded  at  the  audacity 
which  gives  utterance  to  such  falsehood. 

You  have  not  been  drawn  into  this  controversy.  You  have  entered  it  of  your 
own  accord,  and  from  the  malignant  spirit  you  evince,  it  would  seem  that  you 
have  entered  it  for  some  special  purpose.  Is  it  to  curry  favor  with  your  superior, 
the  Bishop,  or  do  you  hope  to  strengthen  yourself  with  your  own  congregation? 

It  it  is  the  first  consideration,  let  me  remind  you:  '"Put  not  your  faith  in 
princes."      It'  it  is  the  second,  I  wish  to  say  that  you  misjudge  your  congregation. 

False,  also,  is  your  charge  that  the  financial  affairs  of  this  parish  have  been 
mismanaged.  All  who  know  the  tacts,  know  that  during  Father  O'Halloran's 
administration  the  financial  condition  of  this  parish  has  been  changed  from  a 
deplorable  state  of  bankruptcy  to  nourishing  prosperity. 

And  during  the  last  seven  years,  not  two,  as  you  stated,  Father  Downey  has 
been  the  able  co-adjuster  of  Father  O'Halloran. 

And  now  you  will  allow  me  to  very  briefly  advise  you  of  the  true  condition  of 
controversy. 

"hen  the  question  of  choosing  a  successor  to  Father  O'Halloran  arose,  the 
unanimous  lesire  of  the  members  of  St.  Patrick's  congregation  to  have  Father 
Downey  appointed  as  his  successor  was  made  known  to  the  Bishop  in  various 
ways.  At  that  t  me  no  one  dreamed  that  the  Bishop  intended  to  impose  the  now 
threatened  indignity  upon  us.  It  is  a  well-recognized  rule,  and  I  believe  a  law  of 
th<  church,  that  no  r<  -tor  shall  be  appointed  ignorant  of  the  language  used  in  the 
congregation.  This  rule  has  been  considered  to  go  so  far  as  to  prohibit  the 
appointment  of  an  officii  ting  priest  of  a  different  nationality  from  the  congregation, 
where  the  congregation  is  all  of  the  same  nationality,  as  in  this  instance.  Whether 
a  law  or  not,  it  seems  that  t  >e  first  principle  of  justice,  equity  and  decency  would 
require  that  the  appointing  ,  ower  in  making  a  selection  would  consult,  or  if  that 
is  asking  too  much,  would  ai  >i  to  please  those  who  are  directly  interested  in  the 
appointment,  of  those  who  arc  asked,  not  to  commit  their  spiritual  welfare  to  the 
appointee,  but  also  to  bear  the  entire  burden  of  the  expense  of  maintaining  the 
church;  but  in  this  instance,  wi  I.  a  high  hand  and  lordly  manner,  the  Bishop 
has  declared  that  he  will  not  heei    the  wishes  of  the  parish,  that  he  will  not  trv  to 


St.   Patrick's  Parish,   East  St.   Louis,  Illinois. 


57 


please  the  members  of  the  congregation,  but  having  ascertained  their  wishes  he 
will  over-ride  them,  because  he  has  the  power  to  do  so.  He  will  "discipline,"  he 
will  scourge  them,  he  will  deny  them  spiritual  consolation  when  in  distress,  and 
deny  them  the  holy  sacrament  when  death  claims  them,  unless  they  submit  tamely 
and  patiently  to  tyranny  hitherto  unknown  in  the  annals  of  the  church.  I  say  to 
you  it  would  be  un-American,  un-Catholic,  unmanly  to  take  any  other  course  than 
that  of  opposition  to  this  high-handed  tyranny. 

And,  Reverend  Sir,  no  power  on  earth  can  alter  the  determination  of  the 
members  of  St.  Patrick's  congregation  to  allow  none  other  than  an  Irish- American 
priest  to  administer  the  affairs  of  this  parish. 

I  regret  exceedingly  to  have  been  compelled  in  this  letter  to  use  towards  you 
terms  which  may  seem  harsh,  but  you  have  precipitated  yourself  into  this  arena 
with  an  ill-advised  ardor,  and  have  made  such  serious  charges  against  the  integrity, 
morality  and  decency  <>f  those  of  whom  you  seem  to  know  hut  little,  that  you  must 
take  the  consequences. 

In  conclusion,  1  pray  you  do  not  take  amiss  this  advice:  Confine  your  holy 
zeal  to  your  own  affairs  and  your  own  parish. 

W.  J.  Brodekick. 

Thus  were  Rev.  Mr.  Gough's  batteries  silenced.  He  came  to  East  St.  Louis 
crying  for  mercy. — Poor  Father  Gough  ! 

"The  best  and  wholesomest  spirits  of  the  night  envelope  you." 


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INDUSTHIES 

Newark  ■  Los  Ang 
Toronto  ,  Ontari 
made  in 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS  URBANA 
282  77389B81C  C001 

A  CELEBRATED  CASE  ST.  LOUIS 


3  0112  025276939 


